Anti-mass spectrometer

From Combine OverWiki, the English Half-Life Wikia

The anti-mass spectrometer was a room-sized piece of equipment located in Anomalous Materials Laboratory test chamber C-33/a at the Black Mesa Research Facility, that was used to analyze exotic materials such as Xen crystals. Regular mass spectrometers are used to measure the mass and relative concentration of atoms and molecules, allowing the chemical composition and strucutre of a substance to be analysed. This process does not work for exotic matter that has anti-mass (negative mass). The anti-mass spectrometer worked by scanning a sample with oscillating electromagnetic fields and beams of high-energy plasma, agitating the exotic matter of the Xen crystals. This resulted in currents of displacement energy within the crystal, which formed noticeable displacement fields that could be analysed using advanced sensors developed by the Lambda labs.

Despite the high levels of energy used in the experiments (running the spectrometer required the use of an Hazardous Environment Suit), it was a typically safe procedure. The final experiment of the Black Mesa anti-mass spectrometer included a highly unstable sample (GG-3883), and combined with the disabling of certain safety features this triggered a resonance cascade, and was the opening event of the Black Mesa incident.

The anti-mass spectrometer was heavily damaged during the resonance cascade, but not actually destroyed until Black Mesa itself was detonated.