Nuclear Parity Research Articles

SALT, ou le triomphe de l'« arms control »

SALT, or the triumph of arms control, by Pierre Hassner Does the Moscow agreement on strategic arms limitation mark the beginning of a process of disarmament, or, at least, of arms reduction ? Is it rather a sham, or a decoy, protecting a continuing arms race? Or is its value mostly political, in as much as, by formalizing the nuclear balance into a contractual relationship, it thereby transforms its meaning? All three interpretations have an element of truth, but the third one more than the two others. Strategically, the meaning of SALT I lies in the recognition of nuclear parity by the two Superpowers, in the victory of the theory of deterrence by mutual assured destruction, and in the institutionalization of a certain cooperation, which is seen as necessary order to prevent a destabilizing arms race. Neither of these results is total or irreversible. But their meaning must be seen in the light of the series of political, economic and technological agreements concluded at the same time as the strategic one, in spite of the crisis over Vietnam. In order to maintain what has been achieved as a result of a marriage between arms control and realpolitik the global Soviet-American agreement will have to go still further, which will probably cause important changes in the structure of both societies as well as of the international system. [Revue française de science politique XXIII (4), août 1973, pp. 779-789.]

Should the United States Retain a Military Presence in Europe and Asia?

For much of the twentieth century, the United States has sought to prevent hostile powers from gaining ascend ancy in Europe and the Pacific Basin because the security of these regions was deemed vital to her security. Several con straints now limit U.S. influence in Europe and Asia: (1) the changed strategic balance between the United States and the Soviet Union in which, under conditions of nuclear parity, the stakes for which the United States would risk its own destruc tion for defense of overseas commitments increase; (2) the willingness of U.S. elites and public opinion to continue to support large-scale conventional forces abroad is reduced; and (3) the international system has evolved toward a limited multipolarity with the emergence of potential new power centers in Europe and Asia. The formidable task facing the United States over the next decade is to maintain sufficient forces abroad to safeguard its interests and to preserve the residual linkage between U.S. strategic deterrence and local security in Europe and Asia, while encouraging the development of power centers less de pendent upon her for their security. The immediate and unilateral withdrawal of U.S. forces, especially from Europe, would render difficult, if not impossible, the achievement of such goals.

Nuclear parity violation tests of non-leptonic weak currents

Nuclear gamma-ray transitions are proposed to detect a ΔI = 1, ΔY = 0 weak interaction. The circular polarizations in 18F and 10B transitions may be particularly suitable.

Parity impurities in 19F

Abstract The effect of nuclear parity impurities in the 110 keV transition in 19 F is investigated.

The effect of strong correlations on baryon-baryon weak interactions

In models of baryon-baryon weak interactions the introduction of inter-baryon correlations has important effects: 1) accounting for nonmesonic hypernuclear decays by Karplus-Ruderman terms alone, and 2) indicating nuclear parity violation has been overestimated by a factor of 2.

Inelastic Neutron Scattering Near Threshold

Abstract : The cross section for inelastic neutron scattering is determined to the first excited states, as well as a few higher ones, of Fe56, Cu63, Zr90, Ba138, and Ce140. Inelastic neutron scattering provides information about the fluctuations in width and spacing of the compoundnucleus levels. Once these effects are understood, inelastic neutron scattering becomes a useful tool in nuclear spectroscopy, permitting spin and parity determination of nuclear levels. A need is shown for widthfluctuation corrections to the Hauser-Feshback theory.

Parity Nonconservation in Nuclei

BS>The influence of the known weak interactions on the parity of nuclear states is discussed. Derivation of a parity nonconserving interaction rests on the assumption of a current-current hypothesis for the weak interactions. Consequently, observation of parity impurity effects would be an important confirmation of this hypothesis. A simple approximate method of treating the nuclear parity impurity is developed and applied in an effort to find experimental situations favorable to observation of effects due to such impurity. Parity-forbidden alpha decay from excited states of light nuclei and certain electromagnetic transitions in the heavy nuclei appear to be promising. Special attention was paid to the internal conversion electrons from the 123kev transition nn Lu/sup 173/ whose polarization is estimated to be about 0.4%. An effect on polarized neutrons analogous to optical rotation is also discussed. (auth)

Deterrence, Disarmament and the Rocky Road Between

UNTIL recently most of the books by disarmers said little about the dirty business of nuclear strategy and most strategists made only occasional references to the Utopia of disarmament. And so it also was with the actual policies—military vs. disarmament—of the nuclear nations. So long as this split persisted there was little chance of disarmament being seriously considered, and so long as the best military analysts considered nuclear weapons useful and even vital to Western defense—as a great many of them did—there was little hope for nuclear disarmament. But in the last few years this split between armers and disarmers has begun to be bridged by an increasing number of men who analyze from both perspectives at once, and by a shift in the consensus on the specific question of the usefulness of nuclear weapons— a shift largely reflecting the steady increase in Soviet nuclear power. These trends were given a considerable assist from these two excellent works by eminent Englishmen, both of whom assume that nuclear parity (and therefore, they believe, nuclear uselessness) is upon us, and both of whom are concerned with deterrence and disarmament, and how to get from one to the other.