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I'm writing a whole lot of things, some of which are vaguely scientific technical specifications and analyses from an Earth Caste and/or Mechanicus perspective. Necron technology is one of my subjects, and of course that means "Gauss" or "green lightning" weaponry. Plenty will be left unexplained, which is fine - the Mechanicus haven't been able to truly understand them in the past, and they don't have to, so I'm not asking for explanations. What I want is any fluff source that describes how they work. I'll be delving into the 3rd and 5th Edition books as well as the Imperial Armours that feature Necrons myself, but I'm sure there's more (particularly in novels or FFG books). I want to get as many angles on the subject as possible before getting into analysis.

So far, I've gathered that they seem to actually pull particles toward the gun rather than emitting them (i.e. the weapon doesn't fire a particle beam to cause damage), and that some form of magnetism is involved (which the Mechanicus can easily measure, so they can name it Gauss after magnetic disturbances caused by the weapon).

Where is the magnetic disturbance, though? Is it around the weapon, or does the weapon project it all the way to its target (which it would have to, to corroborate with the idea that they use some method of stripping particles that involves magnetism)?
If the weapon is discharged in a vacuum without anything in its path, what happens?
Can the beam itself be manipulated (or shielded against) in any way by intense magnetism?

One thing we do know is that the system requires enormous amounts of energy to operate, and that Necron power generation (and miniaturisation) is incredible. My guess is that it uses some amazing feat of technology (probably something-something applied quantum mechanics), far beyond current human understanding (a common theme with Necrons) to excite atoms in the target, priming them so that the following brief, intense pulse of magnetism can "flay" them; the particles aren't actually sucked into the weapon (where would they go?), but instead are just scattered backwards from the impact point. I'd assume that the flash of magnetism is the hammer that breaks those agitated chemical bonds.

 Frozen Ocean wrote:
Where is the magnetic disturbance, though? Is it around the weapon, or does the weapon project it all the way to its target (which it would have to, to corroborate with the idea that they use some method of stripping particles that involves magnetism)?

Could it be the Necron itself?

I assume you mean emitting the magnetic field, but that doesn't quite answer the question. First of all, though, no; Gauss weapons are capable of firing without being held in Necron hands (the Mechanicus have tested them), so we can assume they're a fully-enclosed system, with the exception of those used by Immortals - but we can assume that the cables attaching Immortal to weapon are either power or data related.

Second, what I was asking was if the magnetic field is local to the weapon or if it stretches all the way to the target. The latter would suggest that it is required for the mechanism by which the weapon causes damage on target, while the former suggests that the magnetism is simply a side-effect of generating the "green lightning". I'm inclined to think that it must project a magnetic field all the way to the target, but I'm wondering if any fluff source contradicts that.

From the 'gauss' name one would suspect that the weapon has an electromagnetic flux effect. Perhaps it disrupts electromagnetic fields, causing molecules to de-bond, or disintegrate, in literal terms. Projecting a magnetic field to the target makes sense.

However such a weapon is weak on rule of cool. There would probably be no visual or audio cue the thing was shooting. Enter green lightning.
Perhaps it is the conduit for the magnetic pulse?

Viola!

My two cents.

Yeah, that's what I think for the moment. As I said before, there'd be an initial shot (green lightning) to do "quantum something something" to the target, followed up by a magnetic whiplash that scatters the affected atoms.

IIRC in one of the codexes the Imperium manged to get hold of one of the Gauss weapons and after extensive research determined that the weapon used a super advanced/compressed energy source. The Imperium could try and replicate it, but it would need to be mounted on a Titan and would probably only fire once. And that's for a shot from a Gauss Flayer.

Also the Flayer was named that way because of the way the weapon strips flesh from bone. Probably not a fun way to die.

The gauss flayer isn't a gauss weapon, it's an energy weapon that strips the targets molecules down, absorbing them back into the weapon, so every time it fires and hits something, it recharges itself.

The tau railgun is more akin to a gauss gun.

 Formosa wrote:
The gauss flayer isn't a gauss weapon, it's an energy weapon that strips the targets molecules down, absorbing them back into the weapon, so every time it fires and hits something, it recharges itself.

The tau railgun is more akin to a gauss gun.

Actually, I do believe that its explained somewhere that gauss weapons use a powerful magnetic field that strip works on the molecular level.

Also, railguns are not gauss weapons.
A railgun requires sliding contacts, a gauss gun doesn't.