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We send data using the electromagnetic force, mainly over the form of radio waves, though this could be and is (mostly for human viewing of images) done with visible light. However, I want to know if we could send signals using the strong nuclear force. We can use gravitational waves to send signals, but the EM force is 10^36 times stronger. But, the strong force is a hundred times stronger than that! My guess is that you can, and I looked up if you can transfer waves using gravitational waves, and this could possibly mean that in theory (don't know about in practice) data can be transferred ~100x more efficiently.

Source: Can gravitational wave be used for data transmission?

Note: what I mean is if, in practice, using technology that currently exists or can reasonably be created using today’s available resources, the strong nuclear force can be used to send data over the internet. Also, if it is possible in theory or in practice but is really expensive, please give an example in that scenario as well. I think it could use less energy.

Qmechanic
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2 Answers2

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Both the EM force and gravity are long range forces. The mediator is massless.

Now the gluon is massless too. So far so good. But gluons and quarks live in confinement. That is why the strong force is considered short range. Confinement is a tricky beast, you cannot use gluons to propagate through vacuum vast (or any) distance to transfer information.

The strong force inherently has such a high strength that hadrons bound by the strong force can produce new massive particles. Thus, if hadrons are struck by high-energy particles, they give rise to new hadrons instead of emitting freely moving radiation (gluons). This property of the strong force is called color confinement, and it prevents the free "emission" of the strong force: instead, in practice, jets of massive particles are produced.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_interaction

If you are thinking about the residual strong force (nuclear force), then it is short range too, the mediator(s) are massive, like the pion, rho, omega.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_force

Árpád Szendrei
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Theoretically, one could use strong force in the form of neutron beams for communications. Currently, even relativistic neutron beams can be created (https://lansce.lanl.gov/facilities/wnr/), I suspect for weapons applications. The range for such beams can be assessed as the neutron mean lifetime (about 15 minutes) times the speed of light.

akhmeteli
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