Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 1466 Degeneracy Strikes 1
Civilizations that experienced the Observer 313 incident know that cosmic-level civilizations have the capability to bring an entire galaxy within their attack range.

That's why civilizations like the Galactic Heart Civilization, the Human Civilization, and the Awakener Civilization, which originally belonged to the Galactic Great Voyage Organization, turned tail and ran as soon as they learned of the appearance of the unknown warship. They didn't want to be wiped out in one wave of attacks.

As for the Divine Cube civilization, the reason they allowed the neutron star to retaliate was twofold: firstly, they genuinely wanted to delay the opponent's pursuit after launching their attack; secondly, they were confident and stubborn, as they were very confident in the neutron star's defensive capabilities. After all, even a single "uniform spin" attack had failed to destroy the neutron star back then, and now, after so many upgrades, its defense was absolutely top-notch, not to mention its offensive capabilities.

Therefore, in the entire galaxy, only two thousand neutron war stars are charging in the opposite direction, while the other warships are fleeing for their lives.

On the other hand, at the moment the high-energy reaction disappeared, the unknown warship's attack had obviously been launched, and its attack was indeed, as everyone expected, a physical attack.

The moment it launched its attack, a certain rule of the vast starry sky was altered—a rule related to force.

Since the rules are related to force, we must first know what force is.

As is well known, in ancient China, the Mozi (墨经) contained the earliest definition of force. Mozi said: "Force is the exertion of form." This means that force acts on an object, causing it to change its state of motion. He also said: "Motion is the movement of space." This means that motion is the change in the spatial position of an object.

This is the earliest recorded study of force in human history.

The precise calculation and application of the lever principle can be traced back to the time of Mozi, which is clearly recorded in the history of human civilization.

Later, the concept of force was summarized into three laws: the law of inertia (every object remains at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state of motion by forces acting upon it); the law of acceleration (force causes an object to accelerate, the magnitude of which is directly proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the mass of the object, and the direction of the acceleration is the same as the direction of the net force); and the law of reaction (action and reaction forces between two interacting objects are always equal in magnitude, opposite in direction, and act along the same straight line).

These are the three laws of classical mechanics.
In quantum theory, the concept of force is further elaborated, stating that force is generated by the exchange of discrete energy packets called quanta.

The reason why zero-mass light has light pressure lies in this.

In quantum theory, light is sliced ​​into small pieces, which are called photons. They behave similarly to point particles. When two electrons collide, they repel each other. Quantum mechanics says this is not because of the curvature of space, but because they exchange a packet of energy, namely a photon.

These photons have very small energies, usually measured in Planck's constant. In other words, this is actually a correction of the laws of classical mechanics by quantum theory. It is called quantum correction because the correction is so small that quantum theory can be ignored when describing mechanical phenomena in the macroscopic world.

However, it cannot be ignored when it comes to modifying the rules of force.

To modify the rules of force, one must know what forces exist in this universe.

At this point, quantum mechanics says that different forces are caused by different quantum exchanges.

There are four fundamental forces in the universe: the weak force, the strong force, the electromagnetic force, and gravity.

The weak force is caused by different types of quantum exchanges called W particles. Similarly, the strong force binds protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus. It is caused by subatomic particle exchanges called π mesons. The subnuclear force that binds protons and neutrons, and even π mesons, together is called gluons.

The propagator of gravity is the graviton, and the propagator of electromagnetism is the photon.

Generally speaking, changing the physical rules governing forces means changing some of the rules governing these four fundamental forces. The Star Guardians have also stated that a cosmic-level civilization that follows the four fundamental forces and masters their ultimate applications is a powerful, war-oriented civilization.

Therefore, since the attack method of this unknown warship is based on "mechanics", the civilization behind it must be a powerful and warlike civilization, without a doubt.

However, there is one point that the Star Guardian did not fully explain, because there is a force that does not belong to the four fundamental forces.

It is true that the universe does not have a fifth fundamental force, unless this universe becomes a new universe, that is, after the fourth phase transition, it will have five fundamental forces.

However, there is indeed a force that is not a fundamental force, and that is degeneracy.

So what is degeneracy force?

As anyone who has studied physics knows, the most typical example of degeneracy force is the degeneracy pressure in a neutron star. Neutron stars exist because gravity exceeds the electron degeneracy pressure limit, forcing electrons into the atomic nucleus to combine with protons to form neutrons. The degeneracy pressure between neutrons becomes the last barrier against gravity.

Both electron degeneracy pressure and neutron degeneracy pressure are degeneracy forces.

The Quark War Star envisioned by the Divine Ju civilization is a stellar structure in which gravity is further strengthened, causing neutrons to break apart into a quark soup, and quark degeneracy forces resist gravity.

These are all manifestations of degeneracy forces.

Its essence is the exchange effect caused by wave function interference.

The uncertainty principle tells us that compressing a particle reduces its positional uncertainty, which in turn increases its momentum uncertainty. The result of these changes is that the particle is forced to move with higher kinetic energy and then contributes pressure.

Wolfgang Pauli's Pauli exclusion principle describes the relationship between these fermions: in a quantum system, no two fermions can occupy the same quantum state.

If you force them together, they will generate repulsive pressure.

In daily life, all stable objects exist based on this physical principle. Any matter that we can see—the sky, the sea, mountains, land, pots, pans, and utensils—exists stably based on this principle.

The pressure felt when touching an object is also based on this principle. In fact, when touching anything with your hand, your hand does not directly contact the object. Instead, the microscopic particles that make up your hand and the microscopic particles that make up the object interact with each other due to Pauli incompatibility, resulting in a repulsive force.

All fermions obey the Pauli exclusion principle, which is the physical law of this universe.

The attack launched by this unknown warship is a degeneracy attack, and the modified physical basis is this principle. Therefore, the civilization behind this unknown warship calls this kind of attack a degeneracy attack.

Degeneracy strikes, as the name suggests, are strikes targeting degeneracy forces. They are not one of the four basic forces, but mastering the ultimate application of degeneracy forces can still grant powerful combat capabilities.

(End of this chapter)