Robin, >> IOW The only rock solid thing at all in LENR is that there is NO *high energy gamma.* These gammas cannot be hidden, and stick out like a sore thumb. D+D fusion always produces a high energy gamma. There are no known instances in nuclear physics where deuterium [to 4He] fusion does not produce a high energy gamma.
>> RvS: As has been pointed out here before, either Horace's deflation fusion or severely shrunken Hydrinos offer the possibility (and with Horace's model the high probability), that the energy will be released through the IC (Internal Conversion) mechanism, rather than through a gamma-ray. Well, even if many of us can and do agree that it is a viable 'possibility' as is the phonon cascade - the weight of evidence based on known reactions still favors the alpha release from subthermal neutron activation, which is in keeping with the 'virtual neutron' (Russel, 1991; Dufour, 1993; Kozima and Arai, 2000) and the related hydrex (Dufour et al., 2001) ... and even if that too is still little more than a more defensible speculation at this juncture, it makes more sense to many observers than a pure fiction - like the 'magic phonon' cascade of P. Hagelstein et al. We do know without question that there is a real subthermal neutron species, which is not an invention, even if the evidence for its properties was arrived at by active cooling techniques, instead of via a natural reaction. The subthermal has far different activation properties. There are hundreds of peer-reviewed references for this, and the SPAWAR species looks to some experts like a subthermal neutron. I don't think this is coincidental. The comment still stands that there is no known instance in mainstream nuclear fusion of D + D -> He happening without the high energy gamma, but there is plenty of relevant, but not widely disseminated information on "subthermal (aka 'cold') neutron activation" in many metals which can occur at striking different cross-sections than those we often consider as "thermal". This often gives helium as a decay product, and plenty of excess heat, so why go out and invent something as bizarre as a magic phonon cascade, for which no evidence exists otherwise ? Jones
