Johndale Solem

Johndale C. Solem
File:Johndale Solem September 2014.jpg Solem in September 2014
Born	1941
Residence	United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Atomic and nuclear experimental and theoretical physics
Institutions	Los Alamos National Laboratory
Alma mater	Yale University
Doctoral advisor	Glen A. Rebka, Jr.

Johndale C. Solem (born 1941) is an American theoretical physicist and Fellow of Los Alamos National Laboratory. His career at Los Alamos National Laboratory spanned many areas of scientific research and leadership (1969-2000).

Solem authored or co-authored over 185 technical papers in many different scientific fields, as well as science policy, national security, and defense related issues, many of which remain classified. His unclassified research is published in more than 50 different technical journals.

He is widely known in the public arena for his work on avoiding comet or asteroid collisions with Earth and on interstellar spacecraft propulsion.

Education and career

At Yale University, Johndale C. Solem earned his B.S. cum laude in Physics in 1963 and his Ph.D. in Physics in 1968. His Ph.D. thesis work under Glen A. Rebka, Jr. was on dynamic nuclear polarization in deuterium hydride. He then joined the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (subsequently known as Los Alamos National Laboratory) in New Mexico.

Solem is well known for his research on interesting and challenging problems in many areas of physics and mathematics. Wherever he found or was presented with a scientific problem, he loved to tackle it, wrestle it, and solve it. He is sought out for his value in mentoring colleagues in their research.

Concurrently with his research, Solem held several management positions (1971-1988). Some of his more prominent appointments are: Group Leader of Thermonuclear Weapons Physics, Group Leader of Neutron Physics, Group Leader of High-Energy-Density Physics, Deputy Division Leader of Physics, and Associate Division Leader of Theory.

Shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Solem led an unprecedented U.S./Russia joint collaboration of scientists in an effort to obtain good science and to improve US/Russia relations.

Solem served on the U. S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (1971-1978) and several DoD and DOE committees advising on science policy. He was Los Alamos' representative to the national missile Site Defense Systems Planning Study. He served on the Los Alamos Weapons Program Review Committee and numerous high-level committees setting the direction of nuclear weapons development (1971-1988). Solem headed the Los Alamos Postdoctoral Research Program (1972-1978) and authored the program's charter, which is still in effect.

While a consultant to the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA (1987-2005), he engaged in diverse cutting-edge research on antimatter technology and microrobotics, as well as national security issues. As a consultant to the University of Illinois at Chicago (1987-1988), his research involved advanced lasers.

Scientific contributions

Solem’s research activities have involved experimental, computational, and theoretical physics and mathematics, as well as other areas of science, including magnetism; particle and radiation transport; plasma physics; nuclear physics; nuclear explosive theory; equations-of-state; artificial intelligence and robotics; computational science; x-ray microholography; antiproton science and technology; mathematical physics; astrophysics; exotic methods of spacecraft propulsion; the foundations of quantum mechanics; and laser theory, particularly as it applies to conceptual designs for the gamma-ray laser.

References to Solem’s published work are found by clicking on the wiki hyperlinks in the following sections.

1. Comets and asteroids

In 1980 Solem and Luis Alvarez discussed the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary where Alvarez and his geologist son had found a concentrated layer of iridium, likely from an asteroid strike of enormous scale, causing the dinosaur extinction. Although the Alvarez hypothesis was and remains controversial, Solem realized that the threat from impacts is serious. In view of this, Solem and others organized a near-Earth-object interception workshop at Los Alamos (1992a).

Solem’s seminal work on the interception and deflection of comets and asteroids on collision course with Earth (1993a, 2000) also led to a theory of the origin of the shape of rubble-pile asteroids.

His analytic theory of the breakup of comets by planetary tidal forces resulted in his calculation of the diameter and density of the parent comet of Shoemaker-Levy 9 as it was before breaking up in the tidal field of Jupiter in 1994. His calculations were subsequently confirmed, one of the few astrophysical predictions confirmed by subsequent observation.

He is widely known in film and television for his interviews on asteroid collision and interstellar spacecraft propulsion.

2. Nuclear explosive propulsion for interplanetary space travel

Solem’s research on interplanetary travel culminated in his MEDUSA concept, a nuclear explosive propelled spacecraft for interplanetary space travel (1994a). Gregory Matloff said this was “a surprising [propulsion] concept which might greatly reduce spacecraft mass.” The concept inspired much research and elaboration by the advanced-thinking component of the aerospace community.

At the behest of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, Solem investigated whether a nuclear external pulsed plasma propelled (EPPP) interstellar probe could reach Alpha Centauri in 40 years, the average length of a scientist’s career. No scheme could be found, even involving elaborate staging, that could accelerate such a vehicle much beyond 1% the speed of light.

3. Quantum mechanics

Solem discovered a strange polarization of the hydrogen atom that, contrary to intuition, drove electron orbits perpendicular to an applied electric field (1987).

He later showed that a small displacement of the perpendicular orbits accounted for the familiar Stark effect. Elaborating on the attendant equations, he produced an exactly solvable approximate model Hamiltonian for an atom in a strong oscillatory field (1989a). There are few exactly-solvable problems in quantum mechanics, and even fewer with a time-dependent Hamiltonian. He developed basic theory for nuclear excitation by laser-driven collective electronic oscillations.

He elucidated the interpretation of geometric phase in quantum mechanics by showing the invalidity of superposition of quantal states, the distinction between rays and vectors in projective Hilbert space, and the meaning of resultant singularities (1993b).

Using the symmetry of the Kepler Orbital Problem in operator formalism for both classical and quantum mechanics, Solem predicted a previously unknown elastic scattering process that will rotate the linear polarization of the scattered photon by ½$\pi$ (1997a).

4. Continuum mechanics

Solem examined the fundamental nature of foams under compression and showed a general hyperbolic stress-strain relation (1999).

5. Physical and chemical phenomena at extremely high magnetic fields

Solem provided leadership for a series of pioneering experiments, known as the Dirac Project, that used capacitor banks and Russian designed and built high-explosive-driven flux compression devices to investigate physical and chemical phenomena at extremely high magnetic fields and pressures (1997b). These experiments were an international collaboration of scientists from Russia, Germany, Japan, Australia, Belgium, several American universities, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

6. Gamma-ray lasers

Solem contributed to many innovations in gamma-ray laser (graser) research, publishing more than a dozen papers over a period of twenty years. After proposing a gamma-ray laser configuration driven by a short, impulsive burst of neutrons from a nuclear explosive (1979), he performed research on a number of related topics, often in collaboration with G. C. Baldwin, and sometimes with others. The impulsive neutron burst was generalized to direct pumping of such lasers by neutron capture, later including limitations on capture rates from moderated impulsive sources. This research was extended to two-stage pumping of three-level Mössbauer gamma-ray lasers. A series of papers explored the implications of the time dependence of stimulated emissions for gamma-ray lasers, and revealed the fallacies in gamma-ray laser schemes that propose to obtain gain by stimulating transitions from a long-lived upper to a short-lived lower nuclear state (1994b).

His early work, together with that of others, is assessed in a paper (1981a) and a second assessment (1997c) covers his later work. These review papers contain an extensive list of references.

7. Laser-driven shock waves

Solem and colleagues performed the first laser-driven experiments on shock-wave structure (1977, 1978) and the first impedance-match experiments, recognized as the pioneering work in application of lasers to equation-of-state measurements.

8. Advanced lasers of extremely short wave lengths

While on sabbatical at the University of Illinois at Chicago (1987-1988), Solem engaged in research with academic colleagues to probe the limits starting with a large krypton-fluoride excimer laser at the University’s laser laboratory, which would produce short intense pulses of 248-nm radiation. He and his colleagues investigated many-electron motions in multiphoton ionization and excitation, fifth-harmonic production in neon and argon, strong-field processes in the ultraviolet, generation of very short wavelengths in BaF₂, which produced x-rays 9-13 Å and the kinetic energy distributions of ionic fragments produced by subpicosecond multiphoton ionization of N₂ (1988a, 1989b, 1991a).

9. X-ray microholography

Solem’s paper on the use of x-ray microholography to image biological specimens (1982) was seminal. As a result this early work, research in pursuit of x-ray holography has continued at University of California at Berkeley, University of Illinois, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, industrial firms, and in France and Germany.

Solem observed that by using intense, pulsed coherent x-ray sources, it is possible to obtain magnified three-dimensional images of elementary biological structures in the living state. For optimum contrast between water and protein, the hologram should be made with x-rays tuned to a resonance of nitrogen near 0.3 nanometers. Thus, the structure can be observed in the living state without staining. Resolution is limited by the hydrodynamic expansion that occurs while the necessary number of photons is being recorded. Consequently, although the cell explodes, one obtains a high-contrast high-resolution 3D image of the cell in the living state, owing to the brevity of the exposure (1996a).

For the most straightforward and efficient computer analysis, the use of planer charge-coupled devices (CCDs) is indicated. Solem observed a number of limitations to planar recording, or Fresnel-transform holography. It involves projecting planar reference waves at an off-axis angle which makes the virtual and real images separated in reconstruction. A disadvantage is that the resolution of the microholograph becomes limited to about twice the grain size of the recording surface.

Fourier-transform holography avoids this problem. The curved reference waves allow spacing between fringes to be indefinitely expanded by moving the recording surface away from the reference source. Such Fourier-transform holographic microscopes have been constructed and demonstrated. Digital reconstruction of Fourier-transform holograms is about the same difficulty as Fresnel-transform holograms (1992b). Solem and colleagues have also shown the possibility of using a free-electron laser, as well as an ultra-short pulse x-ray laser.

10. Theory of high-intensity laser-beam self-channeling

While at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Solem and colleagues developed an analytic theory of charge-displacement self-channeling as a mechanism to extend atomic lasers to higher quantum energy and then broadened this theory to the development of KeV-range laboratory x-ray lasers. This concept has been experimentally verified and continues to be pursued as a method for driving laboratory x-ray lasers (1989c, 1994c).

11. Robotics

Solem created a high-level programming language for controlling personal robots. In addition to initiating a laboratory program in artificial intelligence and robotics, Solem did “pioneering” calculations on the motility of microrobots (1994d). He showed unique mechanisms for self assembly of motile microrobots based on Platonic solids, in particular the dodecahedron, which can assemble into a helix appropriate for propulsion at high-Reynolds number (2002). He described several microrobots for military applications (1996b).

12. Advanced computers

In addition to organizing and leading the development of several large-scale physics application computer codes, Solem developed a concept for massively parallel supercomputer architecture specialized for Monte Carlo solution of integro-differential equations (1985a, 1985b).

13. National defense policy

Solem developed ideas regarding nuclear deterrence for national defense policy (1974, 1981b). His work on high-quantum-energy lasers led to several concepts pursued as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative. His work on the theory of nonequilibrium devices provided a solution to an ancient and perplexing problem, and also provided the basic understanding for weapon development during the early era of Ballistic Missile Defense; this work remains classified and cannot be described here. His research established the theoretical underpinnings of the Hypervelocity Missile Program for boost-phase intercept. He created techniques for developing and testing low-yield nuclear explosives in reusable containment facilities.

14. Nuclear technology research and pure nuclear fusion

Solem developed an analytic theory of thermonuclear ignition, which was classified in 1972 and cannot be described here. He contributed ideas of using beta-particle spectroscopy to measure mix processes in National Ignition Facility (NIF) microcapsules (2006).

15. Universal origin of life

Solem worked on a universal, astrophysically-based theory of the origin of life by natural processes arising from non-living matter starting with the minimum possible information, or the minimum possible departure from thermodynamic equilibrium, along with thermodynamically free energy. He developed underlying physical criteria for the minimum size necessary for molecules in order to become self-replicating (2003a).

16. Antimatter science and technology

Solem worked out techniques to use very small quantities of antiprotons stored in a Penning trap, or similar charged-particle storage device, to perform Lilliputian experiments in high energy density physics, including opacity and equation-of-state measurements (1988b, 1990).

He worked on spacecraft propulsion using antimatter. He developed the re-entrant-$\pi$ scheme for the efficient use of antiproton annihilation energy (1991b), while consulting for the RAND Corporation.

17. Mathematics

Solem collaborated on the development of pseudo characteristic functions of convex polyhedra, a result providing rapid regional particle location in Monte Carlo calculations (2003b).

Cited articles

• Solem, J. C. (1991b) “Prospects for efficient use of annihilation energy”. Fusion Technology 20: 1040-1045. (see also Program and Abstracts for ICENES ’91 Sixth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems, June 16–21, 1991, Monterey, CA).

See also

The cited work above has only a small fraction of Solem’s papers; many references to his papers are contained in the Wikipedia scientific articles that are linked above in the Scientific contributions section, as well as in the Wikipedia articles below:

• Nuclear pulse propulsion of spacecraft: Project Orion

Other information

Honors and awards

• Fellow of Los Alamos National Laboratory (1996)
• Los Alamos Fellows Award for Dedicated Services as Coordinator of the Fellows (1999-2000)
• Outstanding Mentor Award, Los Alamos National Laboratory (2002)
• Distinguished Performance Award, Los Alamos National Laboratory (1991)
• Sigma Xi (1963)

Professional society activities

• American Physical Society
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (1972-1977)

Patents

• U.S. Patent No. 4,955,974. September 11, 1990. Rhodes, C. K.; Boyer, K.; Solem, J. C.; Haddad, W. S. “Apparatus for generating x-ray holograms”.
• U.S. Patent No. 5,214,581. May 25, 1993. Rhodes, C. K.; Boyer, K.; Solem, J. C.; Haddad, W. S. “Method for object reconstruction from x-ray holograms”.

Interviews

• Solem, J. C. (2003). Interview for To Mars By A-Bomb: The Secret History of Project Orion (BBC documentary film) at IMDb.
• Solem, J. C. (1999). Interview for If We Had No Moon (Discovery Channel) at IMDb, York Films of England.
• Solem, J. C. (1996). Interview for 3 Minutes to Impact (documentary film) at IMDb, York Films of England.