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Like any emerging science - especially those of the non-pathological
variety -LENR will eventually have its own specialized vocabulary or "argot" and
is well on its way already. Argot is often defined as "a
characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)" You can draw
your own conclusions on that, but suffice it to say that "LENR-got" will
necessarily be filled with acronyms, invented words, arcane phraseology, and
general nerdiness appreciated mostly by the privileged (and snootily-fixated)
few.
As in all endeavors, this argot serves several important purposes for the
practitioners (and keepers of the faith):
1) Sometimes it makes it easier to understand the mechanics of the
situation (up to a certain point), without needlessly backtracking into
elementary concepts; thereafter it...
2) Reinforces a kind of "good ol' boy" comradery (not really gender
specific, but only the Y chromosome is "hard-wired" to decode argot). This
comradery is based on a shared degree of required background knowledge,
nerd-quotient, and hopefully a fair degree of mental acumen.
3) Promotes job security by eliminating all of those who haven't gone
through the "group" initiation process (such as laboriously wading through
ponderous postings by the self-proclaimed experts)
4) Usually incorporates a fair degree of "tongue in cheek" "snub your
nose at the world" kind of geek humor
In keeping with that sentiment (or was that "cynicism") I propose to add
the word "Excitronics" to the LENR argot, if only to trifecta-rize the recently
excogitated and equally significant "electronium" and
"helectronium".... ;-)
What is Excitronics? Think of it as the merger of digital
electronics with heat.
Huh? Seriously... It is the merger of digital electronics
(on the high end: 1 terahertz) with heat (more like
"cold" around 30 terahertz). But you can also think of it as the "key"
to any kind of LENR where BEC-like "condensation" results eventually in nuclear
reactions. Thus excitronics is "like" a QM effect (quantum mechanical) but
not of the low-probability variety, which is normal for QM.
When very high current density (a concomitant of high frequency) is
produced in a small circuit, electrons start to act collectively, and form what
can be called "a gas" with strange and sometimes striking properties. This will
probably be the final limitation of Moore's Law when it comes to computer speed,
so your 3 Ghz Pentium still has a thirty fold potential speed increase before
superconductivity becomes necessary.
Often there is a preferred "size" for the excitronic circuit
structure, and often that size will coincide with what is known as a
"particulate" of the metal or alloy through which the electrons
travel. Particulates, a.k.a. quasi-particles, a.k.a. phonons - can
collectively be called "excitons" when some of their defining characteristics
are a function of the electron "gas" which they contain or
propagate.
If any of that sounds vaguely familiar with Ken Shoulders EVOs, it could be
relevant to that work as well, but that linkage is not yet clear.
If we were able to propagate a distinct frequency of near 100 terahertz
(for copper wire at STP) collisions of the conduction electrons with their
"surroundings" will become resonant because the associated wavelength to this
particular frequency was already the dominant factor in electron movement in
copper (at any frequency). Conduction electrons in copper and most
metals do NOT act between individual atoms, as is commonly believed, but
instead conduction ONLY operates between particulates, and usually this is a
rather large number of actual atoms. This is a very important point. Copper
wire itself, of a precise geometric size and micro-structure, might become
a high temperature superconductor but only at an exact set frequency which
thus far cannot be propagated in available circuitry.
These particulates in metals are usually, but not always, grouped around a
certain well-defined size. This particulate is similar
to what are called "grains" in metals but smaller. IOW with DC
current, the conduction electrons bump around at "mixed" or non-coherent rate
but at a shared common overlapping wavelength, as a normal way of propagation.
When we make this wavelength "coherent" by any other means, such as by
temperature regulation or by a phase-lock in frequency, then... voila: resonance
- often leading to superconductivity - is poised to become an "emergent"
property of the imposed coherence. This is the cross-over point and shared
characteristic between LENR and HTSC (high temperature superconductivity).
For frequencies much less than this particulate size, an electron suffers
many scattering events per driving cycle and ohmic loss is more apparent. When
we think about various sized particles in shared (or group) motion, there are
*phonons,* which can be called the "sound wave" particle; which varies
tremendously in size based upon the mechanical properties of the host. In
metals, phonons are often near-spherical or ovoid, and can theoretically
extend all the way down to nano-particles of several hundred atoms, acting
as if were a single unit. But in this case, that is - in the case of either LENR
or HTSC we seem to looking at a particulate which is closer to
10-100 microns in diameter or wavelength (best guess).
Of course our perception of "sound" is dominated by association with
"waves." Even "spin," the unit of angular momentum has its own "wave," the spin
wave. The study of this in electromagnetics is called "spintronics" which is a
subset of excitronics. The actual estimates on the limit of excitronics go
up to 100 terahertz - which is well in the infrared electromagnetic
spectrum. It is no coincidence that HTSC seems to max-out near this equivalent
temperature.
It is my belief that if LENR is performed at cryogenic temperatures with an
associated coherency imposed on top of the temperature, that BEC-like fusion
will be poised to happen - the only problem being that the energy release could
be catastrophic.
Terahertz radiation, in general, is "non-ionizing" and spans the gap
between light and radio waves in the electromagnetic spectrum. It shares useful
characteristics of both its neighbors; such as - like radio waves,
terahertz waves pass easily through many solid materials, yet they can also be
focused like light to create sharp images. What happens when one gets the three
different forms of mass/energy :
1) photons
2) electrons (leptons)
3) phonons
What happens when one gets ALL three into mutual
coherency?
Lets hope it does not sound too much like "Pop goes the weasel". And due to
many interlocking considerations, it seems to be only possible to get all three
of these into overlapping media into coherency within a very narrow
range of parameters, which seems to be between about 10 microns, 30 terahertz
(on the high end) corresponding to "body temperature" and about 100
microns, 3 terahertz on the low end "pretty damn cold.".
For the intrepid LENR researcher who wants to delve into excitronics, (and
tempt fate) there are lasers available now which generate light at
frequencies of about100 terahertz, so we are not that far off what is needed.
Can this be downshifted through filters? The cutting edge of lasers is
called Free Electron Laser (FEL) and this "should" end up being available at 30
THz soon, and if not soon enough for your needs, then it has been said that they
are not difficult to construct if, that is, a "set" rather than an
adjustable, frequency is acceptable...
...who knows... perhaps one would want to make the FEL "beam dump" to serve
double duty as the LENR target ?
Jones
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