2017/11/21 by Michael Hippke, Hippke, Michael · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Beacon #Computer science #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Nuclear physics #Optics #Photon #Physics #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #Telecommunications #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1711.07962
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University) · Accepted for publication in Acta Astronautica
openalex publication_date 2017/11/21 · arxiv created 2018/05/18 · arxiv updated 2018/05/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The search for extraterrestrial communication has mainly focused on microwave photons since the 1950s. We compare other high speed information carriers to photons, such as electrons, protons, and neutrinos, gravitational waves, inscribed matter, and artificial megastructures such as occulters. The performance card includes the speed of exchange, information per energy and machine sizes, lensing performance, cost, and complexity. In fast point-to-point communications, photons are superior to other carriers by orders of magnitude. Sending probes with inscribed matter requires less energy, but has higher latency. For isotropic beacons with low data rates, our current technological level is insufficient to determine the best choice. We discuss cases where our initial assumptions do not apply, and describe the required properties of hypothetical particles to win over photons.