With Craig Eisendrath and Melvin A. Goodman.
Although the threat to the U.S. should not be ignored, it does not justify the rush to deployment of national missile defense systems.
USA Today Magazine (September 2001) PDF.
The Phantom Defense: America’s Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion
Praeger Press 2001
A Project of the Center for International Policy
Coauthors: Craig Eisendrath and Melvin A. Goodman
Like President Reagan with his “Star Wars” program, President Bush has again made national missile defense (NMD) a national priority at a cost which may exceed $150 billion in the next ten years. Defense experts Eisendrath, Goodman, and Marsh contend that recent tests give little confidence that any of the systems under consideration—land-based, boost-phase, or laser-driven—have any chance of effective deployment within decades. The interests of the military-industrial complex and the unilateralist views of the Bush administration are driving NMD, not a desire to promote national security.
Rather than increase U.S. security, the plans of the current administration, if implemented, will erode it. NMD will heighten the threat from China and Russia, alienate key allies, and provoke a new arms race and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, all in response to a greatly exaggerated threat from so-called “rogue states,” such as North Korea and Iran. Thoughtful diplomacy, not a misguided foreign policy based on a hopeless dream of a “Fortress America,” is the real answer to meeting America’s security goals. Designed to stimulate interest and debate among the public and policy-makers, the Phantom Defense provides solid facts and combines scientific, geopolitical, historical, and strategic analysis to critique the delusion of national missile defense, while suggesting a more effective alternative.
Erratum: p. 86, 2nd full paragraph: The first sentence should read: “Even with nuclear-tipped interceptors it was clear, as early as the 1960s, that, in the words of John S. Foster, Jr. of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the system would . . . limited time available for intercept.”
Topology in Electromagnetics
Topology in Electromagnetics is a chapter in Frontiers in Electromagnetics, edited by Douglas H. Werner and Raj Mittra (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 2000).
The link to the book is:
http://www.amazon.com/Frontiers-Electromagnetics-Series-Microwave-Technology/dp/0780347013
Comment on “The Speed of Gravity”
Physics Letters A Vol. 262, pp. 257-260 (1999)
Coauthor: Charles Nissim-Sabat
Comment on an article by Van Flandern on the speed of gravity. Van Flandern argues that the speed of gravity must be greater than 2 X 10^10 c. We show this is not the case.
Monopoles, gauge fields and de Rham’s theorems
J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 31 (1998) 7077-7094 (PDF)
The topology assumed by most authors for a spacelike hypersurface in a spacetime containing a monopole is generally Euclidean 3-space minus the origin; save for the spherical surface isolating the monopole, this space is unbounded. For such a topology, a consistency relation of de Rham’s theorems shows that a single isolated monopole cannot exist. Monopoles, with charge +/- m, if they exist at all, must occur in pairs having opposite magnetic charge. An extension of de Rham’s theorems to non-Abelian monopoles which are generalizations of Dirac monopoles (those characterized by the first homotopy group of G, the fundamental group of the gauge group G) is made using the definition of an ordered integral of a path-dependent curvature over a surface. This integral is similar to that found in the non-Abelian Stokes theorem. The implications of de Rham’s theorems for non-Abelian monopoles are shown to be similar to the Abelian case.
Force-Free Magnetic Fields: Solutions, Topology and Applications
World Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 1996
After an introductory chapter concerned with the history of force-free magnetic fields, and the relation of such fields to hydrodynamics and astrophysics, the book examines the limits imposed by the virial theorem for finite force-free configurations. Various techniques are then used to find solutions to the field equations. The fact that the field lines corresponding to these solutions have the common feature of being “twisted”, and may be knotted, motivates a discussion of field line topology and the concept of helicity. The topics of field topology, helicity, and magnetic energy in multiply connected domains make the book of interest to a rather wide audience. Applications to solar prominence models, type-II superconductors, and force-reduced magnets are also discussed. The book contains many figures and a wealth of material not readily available elsewhere.
(Force-Free Magnetic Fields at Amazon)
pdf:
Marsh_Force-Free_Magnet_Fields_Solutions_ Topology_ Applications
Helicity and Electomagnetic Field Topology
Helicity and Electromagnetic Field Topology is a chapter in Advanced Electromagnetism: Foundations, Theory and Applications, edited by Terence W. Barrett and Dale M. Grimes (World Scientific, 1995).
Link to the book:
http://books.google.com/books/about/Advanced_Electromagnetism.html?id=lA8tgLMRu2kC
Flux Flow and Flux Cutting in Type-II Superconductors Carrying a Longitudinal Current
Phys. Rev. B Vol. 50, p. 571 (1994) (PDF)
A heuristic model of flux flow and vortex cutting that does not imply a build up of longitudinal flux is given for type-II superconducting cylinders carrying a current in the presence of an axial magnetic field.
Flux-Vortex Structure in Type-II Superconductors Carrying a Longitudinal Current
Phys. Rev. B Vol. 49, p. 450 (1994) (PDF)
For values of r greater than the coherence length, the axially symmetric Ginzburg-Landau equations are solved for a flux vortex carrying a longitudinal current. The field is not force-free, and it is shown that there are no regular solutions to the force-free field equations that decay exponentially with increasing penetration into a superconductor. It is also shown, in this approximation, that in the case of a vortex carrying a non-zero longitudinal current, the Ginzburg-Landau equations are equivalent to the radial pressure-balance equilibrium relation in ideal magneto-hydrodynamics. The techniques developed in this field to address stability issues can then be used to answer questions related to vortex stability.
Nuclear Testing and the 1992 Moratorium
Distributed by the Strategy and Policy Division (N51) of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
This report continues to have relevance in today’s world. Among other issues, it discusses the “robustness” of existing nuclear weapons. There is also an appendix on the seismic verification of underground nuclear explosions.
Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) Correspondence: Nature 462, 158 (12 November 2009).