Hypothetic sci-fi weapon: Strong Nuclear Force Disruptor

[Mak Taru]

The basic idea is a device that will cancel out the Strong Nuclear Force temporarily, causing every atomic nucleus in the area of effect to fly apart due to electromagnetic repulsion of the nucleons. How exactly it's supposed to work can be handwaved, but I have some questions.

1. What would be the realistic effect of a weapon like this? According to my (admittedly limited) understanding of nuclear physics, it would cause any matter it affected to explode like an atom bomb. Is that accurate? How powerful would the explosion be if, say, the target was an average human body? What if the target was an entire city or a planet? What kind of harmful radiation can be expected?

2. Has this idea been used before in sci-fi? I'm pretty sure it must have been, but all I can think of are things like the MD Device from Ender's Game, which really doesn't work the same way (it messes with molecules instead of atoms, spreads exponentially, and causes things to just calmly disintegrate instead of violently explode).

 

[Avernus]

Looking it up Traveler had "disintegrator weapons", but they appear to have confused molecular bonds and nuclear forces. A derivative of the Nuclear Damper which actually does work on nuclear forces.

It's not quite the same thing but one of Olaf Stapledon's old novels, either Last and First Men or Star Maker had a weapon that ignited a self-sustaining nuclear reaction at a distance that continued until a cancelling beam shut it down.

 

[Laplace]

Look no farther than this very forum.

• GUT Ripper - a GUT ripper is a more powerful disruptor that can disrupt the nuclear forces as well. GUT rippers are even more powerful than disruptors and harder to defend against, but are less efficient and versatile.

Click to shrink...

 

[Mak Taru]

Okay, but any insight into my first question?

 

[Ghost_msl]

The basic idea is a device that will cancel out the Strong Nuclear Force temporarily, causing every atomic nucleus in the area of effect to fly apart due to electromagnetic repulsion of the nucleons. How exactly it's supposed to work can be handwaved, but I have some questions.

1. What would be the realistic effect of a weapon like this? According to my (admittedly limited) understanding of nuclear physics, it would cause any matter it affected to explode like an atom bomb. Is that accurate? How powerful would the explosion be if, say, the target was an average human body? What if the target was an entire city or a planet? What kind of harmful radiation can be expected?

2. Has this idea been used before in sci-fi? I'm pretty sure it must have been, but all I can think of are things like the MD Device from Ender's Game, which really doesn't work the same way (it messes with molecules instead of atoms, spreads exponentially, and causes things to just calmly disintegrate instead of violently explode).

Click to shrink...

Hmm...
So - thinking about this I can see two options.
1) It simply 'turns off' the Strong Nuclear Force. This would leave a LOT of free electrons, protons and neutrons - mostly I see a lot of random formations of hydrogen plus many, many free neutrons, not sure what effect this would have other than the obvious one of transforming solid matter into a gas. So fairly energetic gas and lots of not too energetic neutrons.
2) It 'turns off' the Strong Nuclear Force by releasing the binding energy of all the molecules and atoms in the AoE --- err... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. It would fission all matter down the single proton and neutron level. I can't even begin to think of the energy release that could provoke.

 

[Graviator]

It would fission all matter down the single proton and neutron level. I can't even begin to think of the energy release that could provoke.

Click to shrink...

Fusing hydrogen into heavy elements releases a lot of energy. Therefore, breaking the heavy elements back into hydrogen absorbs a lot of energy. The disruptor would probably need to provide all that energy itself; if so, a tiny fraction of that could be recovered as heat from electromagnetic repulsion. Observers outside the effect would experience a burst of very slow neutron radiation emerging from a cloud of hot hydrogen gas.

However, if it works as advertised and completely shuts down the strong nuclear force, you're breaking the protons and neutrons too. It causes an apparent violation of color conservation at the effect's edge. The effects of that have never been observed in practice, but may plausibly include extreme temperatures and the production of large quantities of unstable mesons.

 

[Mak Taru]

Hmm...
So - thinking about this I can see two options.
1) It simply 'turns off' the Strong Nuclear Force. This would leave a LOT of free electrons, protons and neutrons - mostly I see a lot of random formations of hydrogen plus many, many free neutrons, not sure what effect this would have other than the obvious one of transforming solid matter into a gas. So fairly energetic gas and lots of not too energetic neutrons.
2) It 'turns off' the Strong Nuclear Force by releasing the binding energy of all the molecules and atoms in the AoE --- err... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. It would fission all matter down the single proton and neutron level. I can't even begin to think of the energy release that could provoke.

Click to shrink...

I'm aiming for something closer to the second option.

 

[Ghost_msl]

I'm aiming for something closer to the second option.

Click to shrink...

All I can say to that is. "Please don't point that thing anywhere NEAR me or mine."