Is the Strong Nuclear Force Really Needed?

• For ninety years it has been a fixed point of physics that the atomic nucleus cannot be held together by electromagnetism. 
• The protons are all positively charged and repel; something else, a short-range strong force — mesons in Yukawa’s formulation, residual QCD today — must overcome that
• repulsion. 
• This force is one of the four fundamental interactions, and the whole of nuclear physicssince Chadwick’s neutron in 1932 rests on it. 
• To propose that a nucleus is bound by Coulomb forces alone, with no strong force at all, therefore looks not merely wrong but impossible: it is the textbook reason the strong force had to be invented

This is the intro to a new article extending RealQM from atoms to nuclei of atoms as RealNucleus showing that Coulomb forces suffice to keep a nucleus together.  This is realized by dual confinement between a core shell system of electrons surrounded by a shell system of protons, where the electrons keep the protons together, and the protons form a cage for the electrons. 

I agree with you that this seems impossible. That the strong force can be eliminated from a discussion about atomic nuclei? Yet this what mathematics shows to be true: Stable nuclei can form under only Coulomb potentials. There are are only two fundamental forces: Newton and Coulomb!

Take a look at the article and test the code realizing the math.

Help: How to understand that dual confinement between electrons and protons is possible? Start with H as 1 proton surrounded by 1 electron. Recall that the ion H- with an additional electron is a stable configuration. Conclude that 1p can bind 2e. Now switch roles of protons and electrons and conclude that 1e as core can bind 2p around. Generalize to the idea that Z electrons as core can bind 2Z protons around and so conclude that one part of the dual confinement may be possible. What remains is to see that the 2Z protons as a shell system surrounding a core of electrons can act as a form of cage keeping the electrons together despite mutual repulsion. Thus what seems like a miracle may not be miraculous.