{
  "abstract": "We present an analysis of active interrogation in space with the goal to verify the absence of nuclear weapons hidden in a large constellation of satellites. We propose a 16 MeV photon beam generated by advanced laser wakefield accelerators and the detection of fission neutrons using segmented organic scintillators. We use Starlink as a real-world example for the constellation and solve the inspector routing problem against this set of 7,852 satellites over a 5-year mission period. We perform detailed simulation of the nuclear and orbit physics: signal generation and detection with GEANT4 against an orbit-resolved neutron and gamma background, routes flown with Orekit including the effects from the Earth's oblateness, and detection decided by a likelihood ratio test. We identify different encounter types and fleet designs based on a range of inspector platforms. The radiation dose to target satellites from the beam can be kept to about 1% or less of the 5-year space environment dose. We find that a small number of inspection platforms, 20-70 depending on the accelerator assumptions, can serve inspections to the full constellation with a detection probability of 90% against a single deployed warhead. A 10% random sample of the whole fleet can be inspected by 2-20 platforms providing a 37% detection probability against 5 deployed warheads.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.04016",
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Patrick Huber"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8k7jx9z0z9kv4.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.04016",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "8k7jx9z0z9kv4",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.04016",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.soc-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2202|Space Satellite Systems and Control"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7220718764",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.04016",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-02",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8k7jx9z0z9kv4.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:27:01Z",
      "native_id": "2610.04016",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.04016"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.soc-ph",
      "subfield": "statistical-nonlinear"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Verification of the Outer Space Treaty with active interrogation",
  "title_text": "Verification of the Outer Space Treaty with active interrogation",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:27:01Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8k7jx9z0z9kv4",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}