gravitational-wave antenna
Names: gravitational-wave antennaantennagravitational wave transmittergravitational wave broadcasting stationGravitational Wave Universal Broadcast Systemgravitational wave transmitterstransmittersgravitational wave broadcast systemcontrollergravitational wave transmission system
First appears in Book 2: The Dark Forest, chapter 10 (Five Years Later)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 10The antenna is a mirror-smooth cylinder 1.5 km long and 50 m wide, suspended two meters above the ground by antigravity.
- Ch 10Its continuous gravitational beam makes water vapor collect above it, causing frequent rain and creating a lush green meadow in the desert.
- Ch 10This is the third such system; the first two, in Europe and North America, used magnetic levitation.
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 26Gravitational waves became the main deterrence broadcast method because they are omnidirectional, slow to decay and long-ranged, unlike electromagnetic waves, which are like smoke signals in space.
- Ch 26The antenna uses a vibrating string of degenerate matter nanometers wide; man-made strings have about a fifty-year half-life, so antennas must be replaced every half century.
- Ch 26The transmitters cannot be miniaturized and are very costly; only twenty-three were built, later cut to four: three terrestrial (Asia, North America, Europe) and the ship Gravity.
- Ch 26In Year 12 of the Deterrence Era the three terrestrial antennas moved deep underground, protecting only against human threats since droplets pass through rock easily.
- Ch 28The system was destroyed beyond recovery in the droplet attack, ending dark forest deterrence.
- Ch 30Twenty-three transmitters were completed, but nineteen were dismantled during the early Deterrence Era; one hundred had been planned.
- Ch 30The author argues the real flaw was that surface or underground transmitters could be destroyed, not their small number; more of them would still have fallen quickly.
- Ch 31The antenna was a 1,500-meter-long, 50-meter-wide cylinder magnetically levitated in a cave forty-five kilometers underground; it was smashed and swallowed by lava.
- Ch 36Its antenna is Gravity's hull; its controller sits in an isolated spherical cabin at the stern, with entry codes unknown even to the captain.
- Ch 36Only the Swordholder on Earth can activate it by neutrino signal, which takes a year to arrive; its degenerate-matter string was about two months from failing.
Connections
- related toGravityGravity carries one of the four remaining transmitters
- enemy ofTrisolaran probedestroyed it
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 10Family visits the antenna
Luo Ji, Zhuang Yan and Xia Xia visit the giant gravitational-wave antenna at sunset in northern China.
- Book 2 · Ch 10Trisolaran operator speaks with Luo Ji
Through a sophon, the elderly Trisolaran who sent the original warning protests that humanity is not the only species with love, and proposes encouraging love elsewhere in the universe; Luo Ji agrees.
- Book 3 · Ch 28Deterrence terminated
The droplets destroy the three gravitational wave transmitters and suppress solar radio amplification, ending dark forest deterrence without attacking the Swordholder.
- Book 3 · Ch 30Analysis of deterrence failure
The author argues the failure stemmed less from the number of transmitters than from their vulnerable placement. Gravitational wave ships were never built in numbers because of extremist threats, cost, and a deep fear of their power.
- Book 3 · Ch 31Antenna destroyed by droplet
A Trisolaran droplet pierced the Gobi crust, destroyed the gravitational wave antenna and caused two eruptions, ending Earth's deterrence.