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Assume that space warfare is dominated by gamma and x-ray lasers (Wakefield-Plasma and Free Electron Lasers) capable of killing targets several light-seconds away. Stealth in space is possible due to optical metamaterials and cooling tech, this is a set assumption. However stealth is rendered useless by x-ray phosphorescent scanning. Antimatter mass-production and fusion are well understood technologies and are easy to use. The setting is nonetheless supposed to be hard-scifi.

While conventional projectiles will be vaporised quickly by the lasers, and throwing kilometer sized asteroids at them to overwhelm them isn't really an option, a black hole would be a projectile utterly immune to laser fire. Ultra small Kugelblitz black holes with lifetimes in the days or hours seem to be suited best for this, due to their relatively low mass and the fact that they will give off enormous amounts of energy as gamma radiation. Scale the black holes right and even a near miss can evaporate an enemy spacecraft. The only way to counter this would be evasion or point-defense with defensive black holes, which perform a flyby maneuver to deflect the incoming black hole.

The Kugelblitze are generated using the laserstars laser and mirror essemblies, either tuned down to lower wavelengths or using x-ray mirrors. Basically the mechanism just puts enough photons in one place to create a black hole of the desired mass.

The issues begin after the Kugelblitz is generated. How do I move a Kugelblitz black hole? I know that gravity, meaning a gravity tractor, would work, but the performance would be pityful. Can the black hole be manipulated by electro-magnetic fields? If that where the case, would building a coil-gun or a missile out of it be possible?

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You have an issue with evaporation of black holes. A black hole of mass 228 tonnes has a life time of about 1 second. The life is roughly proportional to the cube of the mass. So to get 100 seconds you'd need just over 1 thousand tonnes. Or 4 thousand tonnes for roughly 2 hours.

So producing 4 thousand metric ton black hole from radiation (the meaning of Kugelblitz) would be a challenge. And then it would only have 2 hours to reach its target. During that 2 hours it would be radiating at a truly astronomical intensity, with the intensity rising quite rapidly. Being nearby your bullet just before you shot it would be a challenge.

Possibly the original radiation to produce the black hole, projected at the enemy in a not-particularly-tight beam would be nearly as harsh a weapon. And probably a lot easier to direct at the opposition rather than into some kind of mad focus on an absurdly small object. (If I did the math right, a 4000 tonne black hole has a radius of 6E-21 meters.)

So producing such a thing would be a lot harder than tossing around anti-matter. Very much a lot harder.

However, leaving that aside, black holes have mass, charge, and angular momentum. So you could chuck in some extra electrons and use electro-magnetic fields to push it around. Of course, the magnetics to push a 1000 tonne projectile around would themselves be a challenge to work with and around. Your red blood cells, for example, are subject to being affected by extreme magnetic fields. To say nothing of the effects on any metalic components in your nearby ships.

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  • $\begingroup$ Once you've worked out how big the event horizon of a 4000 tonne black hole is, you'll see that just chucking in some extra electrons is going to be Quite Difficult. If you can't form it with a charge, you may as well resign yourself to it remaining neutral for its lifetime. $\endgroup$
    – Starfish Prime
    Oct 24, 2019 at 21:17
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    $\begingroup$ @StarfishPrime For suitable values of "leaving that aside." $\endgroup$
    – puppetsock
    Oct 24, 2019 at 21:37
  • $\begingroup$ @StarfishPrime Doesn't matter if you charge it during creation, it's going to selectively suck in virtual particles of the opposite charge and become pretty much neutral. $\endgroup$
    – Loren Pechtel
    Oct 25, 2019 at 4:45
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At first, it may seem crazy, but yes.

Alexander Bolonkin seems to have an idea on how to do this:

http://vixra.org/pdf/1309.0200v1.pdf

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    $\begingroup$ Please provide some context for the link - see Provide context for links in our answering guidelines: Links to external resources are encouraged, but please add context around the link so your fellow users will have some idea what it is and why it’s there. Always quote the most relevant part of an important link, in case the target site is unreachable or goes permanently offline. $\endgroup$
    – G0BLiN
    Nov 24, 2019 at 13:16

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