Christofilos effect

It was first predicted in 1957 by Nicholas Christofilos, who suggested the effect had defensive potential in a nuclear war, with so many beta particles becoming trapped that warheads flying through the region would experience huge electrical currents that would destroy their trigger electronics.

The mirror is a deceptively simple device, consisting largely of a cylindrical vacuum chamber that holds the fusion fuel and an electromagnet wound around it to form a modified solenoid.

[4] A solenoid normally generates a linear magnetic field along the center of its axis, in this case down the middle of the vacuum chamber.

However, even in theory, no mirror is perfect; there is always a population of particles with the right energy and trajectory that allow them to flow out of the ends through the "loss cone".

[5] This makes magnetic mirrors inherently leaky systems, although initial calculations suggested the rate of leakage was low enough that one could still use it to produce a fusion reactor.

In the case of the aurora, particles of the solar wind begin orbiting around the field lines, bouncing back and forth between the poles.

When one considers a complete "orbit" from north pole to south and back again, the electrons naturally spend more time in the mirror regions because this is where they are slowing down and reversing.

These interactions slow the electrons so they produce less magnetic field, resulting in an equilibrium point being reached in the upper atmosphere about 110 kilometers (70 mi) in altitude.

For the mirror points being considered, almost any beta particle traveling roughly upward or downward would be captured, which he estimated to be about half of them, leaving 2×1026 electrons trapped in the field.

Christofilos noted that the conjugate point for most of the continental United States is in the South Pacific, far west of Chile, where such explosions would not be noticed.

A series of explosions would cause a massive radar blackout over Russia, degrading its anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system without warning.

[14] During the same period, plans were being made by the US to test the presence of the expected charged layer directly using the Explorer 1 satellite as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY).

[16] This led to new panic within the defense establishment when some concluded that the Van Allen belts were not due to the Sun's particles, but secret Soviet high-altitude nuclear tests of the Christofilos concept.

[10] Christofilos' idea immediately sparked intense interest; if the concept worked in practice, the US would have a "magic bullet" that might render the Soviet ICBM fleet useless.

[10] In February 1958, James Rhyne Killian, chairman of the recently formed President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC), convened a working group at Livermore to explore the concept.

The group agreed that the basic concept was sound, but many practical issues could only be solved by direct testing with explosions at high altitudes.

[18] Adding to the urgency of the planning process was the ongoing negotiations in Geneva between the US and the USSR to arrange what eventually became the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

ARPA's scientific director, Herbert York, formed a blue-ribbon committee under the name "Project 137" to "identify problems not now receiving adequate attention".

The twenty-two man committee of who's-who in the physics world was chaired by John Archibald Wheeler, who popularized the term black hole.

[10] York briefed President Eisenhower on the Christofilos concept and, on 6 March 1958, received a go-ahead to run a separate test series.

It is now believed that this leaked from the University of Iowa lab run by James Van Allen, which was working with ARPA on Argus throughout this period.

Sullivan spoke to Richard Porter, chair of the IGY Panel on Rockets and Satellites, who was "horrified" by how much information Baldwin had found out.

At the December meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Sullivan heard that a paper on the topic, titled "Artificial Modification of the Earth's Radiation Belt", was being readied for publication.

York discussed the matter with James Killian, chair of the Presidents Science Advisory Committee (PSAC), who added that Van Allan was also pressing hard for publication rights.

[24] Sullivan later drove home his point about the information coming out anyway by calling the IGY monitoring stations and asking about records for aurora during August and September.

The letter outlined the fact that an increasing amount of information was leaking about the tests and that the Times had been patiently waiting on approval from the Pentagon that appeared not to be forthcoming.

Meanwhile, scientists working on the project were becoming increasingly vocal about the publication of the data, and a late February meeting[clarification needed] resulted in arguments.

[24] Baldwin and Sullivan had had enough; they went to the top of the Times hierarchy, publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger, president Orvil E. Dryfoos, and managing editor Turner Catledge, who approved publication.