Omega Transmission Relay

An Omega Transmission Relay, formally called a class-6 Virtual-Relativistic Omega Enthropic Jols Flux Modulator, is a mean to transport theoretically infinite amount of energy.

It has spread across the Federation as the most efficient way to transport energy. It works by moving quasi-existent Omega-particles.

Omega Particles
The Omega Particle is one of the most elusive and transcendent entities in the known universe.

It has been theoretized by most technologically advanced species and have been researched in countless experiments. It is predicted to have the most convenient enthropic configuration it is possible to achieve, but it has also been observed that reaching that configuration is one of the toughest jobs in the history of science.

There is no reliable report of the creation of a stable Omega Particle and all known attempts to do so have resulted in failures and, usually, huge explosions.

Omega Particles are intrinsically bosons. Their fermionic counterparts, nicknamed Omega-Chi Particles and differing from Omega Particles in just for example one electron, are fantastically unstable and are the prime cause of those failures.

Virtual Omega Particles
A stable Omega Particle can last forever and never decay. Trivial Quantum Field Theory allows but the creation of quasi-particles, meaning particles that have all the same properties of one particle eccept the mass. These particles exist for an extremely short time and are useful in carrying energy.

In nature only virtual gauge bosons can be observed (such as virtual photons), but for no reason the creation of something more complicated should be forbidden. Via a device called a Jols Extractor, true essende of the Omega Transmission Relay, one can convert energy in Virtual Omega Particles. These particles do not explode as they tend to decay first, and are created at a relativistic speed so that the extreme time-dilation allows them to exist for what, in the time-frame of the starship, is an observable time.

How it works
The Omega Transmission Relay does not create energy but rather needs an energy source, usually a matter-antimatter reactor or a star.

As a simplified picture, the Jols Extractor uses that energy creating super-fast virtual Omega particles that are sent towards the next Omega Transmission Relay, where the Jols Extractor transforms them back to usable energy. If needed, that energy can be used to create a new Omega particle, moving this energy from site to site at a relativistic speed.

Things are more complicated. It turns out that the most efficient way to use OTR is to create a flux of virtual Omega partices and, since they are bosons, they form a Bose-Einstein condensate. This BEC has a Goldstone mode, called the PW quasi-particle, that can carry energy without loss - and as such, in infinite amounts.

Comparison to other methods
The OTR can carry infinite amount of energy without loss. It is very versatile and has top stress performance. It is also cold - technological constrains on the Jols Extractor force it to work at 3 mK. As a comparison, plasma works at a temperature of thousends of Kelvin and the only way to send more energy is to send more plasma.

The transmission requires however more time as Jols Extractors can't process it immediately. So for example when the power is less than 1.2 MW an OTR is four time less efficient than a copper wire.

Malfunctions of the OTR are not crucial per se but the energy stored at the moment in the single OTR will be released, resulting usually in massive explosions. If the OTR was transferring no energy, no malfunction could result in an explosion.