Thread:Ghelæ/@comment-29927902-20161001081010/@comment-47205-20161001232427

Do you mean an electric field to bring the electrons back to the generator? Magnetic fields apply perpendicular forces, so while you could have a dipolar magnetic field to bring the electrons back to one pole, that would draw positive charges back to the other pole.

So then each electron is fired out and then pulled back by the electric field, like throwing an object upwards in a gravitational field and then letting it fall back down? Then, your idea is, a negative charge is repelled by the outermost electrons, while a positive charge is repelled by the generator's electric field.

I don't currently know how much that affects the rest of your idea; I'll look over it again in the morning. My first thought is that, because the electrons will also repel each other, the effect of the negative charge of the electrons will always have to be less than the positive effect of the generator; in other words, if the electrons are enough to push another charged particle away from the ship, they'll also push each other away from the ship. It would work against any large projectile, however: you're basically firing short-ranged high-energy particle beams in all directions.