A Q-Mirror consists of a disk of artificial Q-balls held in suspension using methods unknown to modosophont technology, but theorized to involve quantum Casimir fields or possibly managed chaos systems (or both). The exact mechanisms used to create both Q-Balls and Q-Mirrors are unclear, but are generally believed to involve technologies similar to those used by transapients to synthesize monopoles. At sufficiently high energies, synthetic vacuum states are created that result in the generation of topological point defects, which then ‘freeze out’ and stabilize into monopoles, Q-Balls, or other forms of exotic matter, depending on the desires of the controlling transapient.
Q-Mirrors come in various sizes and masses, ranging from microns to kilometers in radius, and fractions of a gram to hundreds of thousands of tons. Regardless of their size, shape, or mass, all Mirrors are surrounded by a control and containment frame that both maintains the stability of the Q-ball structure of the mirror and allows the entire mirror assembly to be manipulated by or connected to conventional matter devices. Typically, advanced smartmatter frames are used (allowing the Q-Mirror to more effectively prevent unwanted matter incursions), often incorporating magmatter components to allow the mirror to operate in the high energy environment of a space drive or reactor core.
Any form of baryonic matter, no matter how complex in structure, that comes into contact with a Q-Mirror (generally by passing through it, as Q-Balls are immaterial and invisible to conventional matter) is ‘reflected’ as its antimatter equivalent (and vice-versa) with virtually 100% efficiency and zero energy expenditure, beyond that required to initially create the Q-Mirror itself. Applications of Q-Mirror technology (often combined with magmatter based support systems) include conversion drives and reactors, imaging, and stellar modification systems.
Q-Mirrors first become available at the Third Singularity, but are used across the higher S-levels whenever any significant amount of antimatter is required.