Some tests of nuclear string hypothesis

Nuclear string hypothesis is one of the most dramatic almost-predictions of TGD. The hypothesis assumes that nucleons inside nucleus organize to closed nuclear strings with neighboring nuclei of the string connected by exotic meson bonds consisting of color magnetic flux tube with quark and anti-quark at its ends. The lengths of flux tubes correspond to the p-adic length scale of electron and therefore the mass scale of the exotic mesons is around 1 MeV in accordance with the general scale of nuclear binding energies. The long lengths of em flux tubes increase the distance between nucleons and reduce Coulomb repulsion. A fractally scaled up variant of ordinary QCD with respect to p-adic length scale would be in question and the usual wisdom about ordinary pions and other mesons as the origin of nuclear force would be simply wrong in TGD framework as the large mass scale of ordinary pion indeed suggests. The presence of exotic light mesons in nuclei has been proposed also by Chris Illert based on evidence for charge fractionization effects in nuclear decays.

Nuclear string hypothesis leads to rather detailed predictions and allows to understand the behavior of nuclear binding energies surprisingly well from the assumptions that total strong binding energy is additive for nuclear strings and that the addition of neutrons tends to reduce Coulombic energy per string length by increasing the length of the nuclear string implying increase binding energy and stabilization of the nucleus. Perhaps even also weak decay characteristics could be understood in a simple manner by assuming that the stable nuclei lighter than Ca contain maximum number of alpha particles plus minimum number of lighter isotopes. Large number of stable lightest isotopes of form A=4n supports this hypothesis.

In TGD framework tetra-neutron is interpreted as a variant of alpha particle obtained by replacing two meson-like stringy bonds connecting neighboring nucleons of the nuclear string with their negatively charged variants (see this). For heavier nuclei tetra-neutron is needed as an additional building brick and the local maxima of binding energy E_B per nucleon as function of neutron number are consistent with the presence of tetra-neutrons. The additivity of magic numbers 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, 126 predicted by nuclear string hypothesis is also consistent with experimental facts and new magic numbers are predicted and there is evidence for them.

Note added: The attempt to understand the variation of the nuclear binding energy and its maximum for Fe leads to a quantitative model of nuclei lighter than Fe as color bound Bose-Einstein condensates of ⁴He nuclei or rather, of color flux tubes defining meson-like structures connecting them. Fermi statistics explains the reduction of E_B for the nuclei heavier than Fe. Detailed estimate favors harmonic oscillator model over free nucleon model with oscillator strength having interpretation in terms of string tension. Fractal scaling argument allows to understand ⁴He and lighter nuclei analogous states formed from nucleons and binding energies are predicted quite satisfactorily. Giant dipole resonance interpreted as a de-coherence of the Bose-Einstein condensate to pieces provides a unique test for the model and precise predictions for binding energies follow.

I am grateful for Elio Conte for discussions which stimulated a more detailed consideration of nuclear string model.

For more details see the chapter TGD and Nuclear Physics and the new chapter Nuclear String Hypothesis of "p-Adic Length Scale Hypothesis and Dark Matter Hierarchy".

P.S. You must read this.