Why walk when we can beam!!?

[Ezri's Toy]

Originally posted by Tobian
A Cosmic string is a rather dire plot device to be using in a planetary orbit situation, since the planets residents would prbably be more concerned with the violent earthquakes, tidal waves, atmospheric ionisation and life threatening radiation levels in their atmosphere !

Well, I wasn't thinking of cosmic strings in planetary orbit. I read somewhere that evidence of cosmic strings can be detected from great distances, so it wouldn't be too great a leap to say that they could affect things from the same distances.

But, admittedly, my knowledge of string theory and quantum mechanics can fit in a thimble.

[Tobian]

I think that a quantum string is not unakin to a linear singularity - I am not too sure if this definition is strictly correct, but this is how it was portrayed in the episode where the Enterprise encountered one.

Effectivelly it is extremelly dense and long, but only the width of a proton. It CAn have a high gravitational field, however that can depend on the vector you face it.

Technically cosmic strings aren't likelly to be encountrred in any specific location as they are mostly to do with the constructs that physicists use to model the early universe and are generally several orders of magnitude larger than galaxies (though of course not neccessarily that visible!) and are effectivelly the constructs which later formed the known universe. Not to be confused with superstring theory, which are a theoretical model for the particles below the size of quarks and leptons.