Electrostrong Nuclear Disintegration in Condensed Matter

Abstract

Photo- and electro-disintegration techniques have been traditionally used for studying giant dipole resonances and through them nuclear structure. Over a long period, detailed theoretical models for the giant dipole resonances were proposed and low energy electron accelerators were constructed to perform experiments to test their veracity. More recently, through laser and "smart" material devices, electrons have been accelerated in condensed matter systems up to several tens of MeV. We discuss here the possibility of inducing electro-disintegration of nuclei through such devices. It involves a synthesis of electromagnetic and strong forces in condensed matter via giant dipole resonances to give an effective "electro-strong interaction" - a large coupling of electromagnetic and strong interactions in the tens of MeV range.