Recent discussion of nuclear isomers has stimulated a chain of thought that clearly points to holes in my understanding of isomers. From reading in Norman Cook's book, I find that nuclear theory is in a quite primitive state. It caused me to ask myself, "How are nuclear isomers determined?", "How are isomers predicted?", and "How are the ultra-stable isomers formed?".
It strikes me that nuclear isomers must comprise a local minimum in the energy state of the nucleus. This may be manifest as a lattice arrangement of the nucleons having a low energy, but not the lattice arrangement having the minimum energy. When the heavy elements form in stellar and nova nucleosynthesis, one would expect all of the nuclear lattice states to be populated - including all of the isomeric local minima in the lattice state energy. If the energy difference between the nuclear ground state (lowest energy lattice arrangement) and the isomeric state is low or the local minimum is deep, then the isomeric state may have a half-life that is greater than the age of the universe. This means that that the possibility exists for large amounts of isomeric nuclei. How do we determine that an element's nucleus is an isomer or is in its ground state? Chemically they would behave the same. We cannot conveniently distill the atoms and look at the spectra of the total energy of the nucleus very easily. Let me make a proposition (and please tell me if this is easily falsifyable): - *Many elements have large fractions of their nuclei in an isomeric/non-ground state that is highly stable. * If this were true, instead of a fusion or transmutation, *could LENR be a catalyzed transition of nuclei to a lower or ground state from a stable isomeric state?* Could the introduction of hydrogen in close proximity to a nucleus provide the dither or the "grease" to permit the transition of the nucleus? Could transmutations sometimes occur during the transition of the nucleus from its isomeric state, in proximity with such a hydrogen catalyst? Could the the primary branch of such an isomeric transition be low energy gamma that is predominantly absorbed in the apparatus? Note that every element having a different atomic mass, I.E a different number of nucleons (for example each of the different isotopes of Ni) would have a different set of isomeric states. Some isotopes may have stable isomeric states while other isotopes may not. For that reason, some isotopes of Ni may be found to be more energetic in catalyzed decay of their isomers. This would seem to be a completely new avenue for explanation of LENR without violation of known physics or introduction of exotica. It would also be still a huge energy opportunity. Discussion? Bob Higgins
