In reply to Horace Heffner's message of Fri, 9 Oct 2009 04:26:08 -0800: Hi Horace, [snip] >It simply is very difficult to establish with high sigma results >whether energy is produced at 23.8 MeV or 18.8 MeV per He4, or >something in between. > >In the case of the fusion reaction: > > D + T -> He4 (3.5 MeV) + n (14.1 MeV) > >it is much easier to determine if the energy spectrum of the >neutrons, which result from every such reaction, is consistent with a >mean of 14.1 MeV.
Even if it isn't, there are possibilities other than a ZPE interaction that might explain the deviation. e.g. some of the neutrons could come from D-D reactions according to the usual reactions (since D must be present in a D-T experiment). Furthermore, even in the D-T reaction, if/when the electron is expelled along with the neutron, one might logically expect all three particles to share the energy resulting in a broad spectrum of neutron energies. (Three particles because the He4 also counts as one). Qua energy distribution, this should result in a spectrum analogous to that of beta-decay. >I think there is in fact some indication that the >neutrons resulting from cold fusion are considerably less than 14.1 >MeV on average. This is because only a few percent are above 9.4 >MeV. It remains for the spectrum to be nailed down. I think this is >the most important experimental work at hand. > >There is also the theoretical question of whether the electron is >capable of radiating away the energy released by the strong force >when the helium nucleus is formed. The electron doesn't need to radiate the energy away. It can simply absorb it as kinetic energy, and be expelled from the nucleus at near light speed. This then leaves the nucleus itself behind as an ion, which later reacquires an electron from the environment to become a neutral atom. The energetic electron loses energy to the environment by ionizing other atoms. >It strikes me as likely in >ordinary D-D hot fusion that an energetic helium nucleus is >momentarily formed prior to the release of either a proton or >neutron. That means the nucleus momentarily contains the full 23.9 >MeV of a D-D fusion heat, of strong force binding of the deuterons. Agreed. >The breaking of strong force bonds, fission of the He4*, to release >an n or p then saps away some of that heat. In the case of D(D,p)T >the energy required to fission off a proton is 23.9 MeV - 4.03 MeV = >19.87 MeV. In the case of the D(D,n)He3 reaction the fission energy >to produce the neutron is 23.9 MeV - 3.27 MeV = 20.63 MeV. This >results in the classic hot fusion energies: > >D(D,p)T 4.03 MeV >D(D,n)He3 3.27 MeV >D(D,gamma)He4 23.9 MeV Agreed. > >Now, if a small electron is present in the fused nucleus, the nucleus >kinetic energy is reduced a priori, Why? > the nuclear temperature is >reduced. The energy of fusion does not have to be radiated away. No >time is required for photon creation, or for that matter neutrino >creation or any other weak reaction, prior to the He4* nucleus >fission. The heat is simply not there to begin with. The energy of the fusion reaction due to a change in mass has to go somewhere. If it isn't in the He4* nucleus, then the electron has to have it as kinetic energy, which is what I have been saying for some time now. >The amount of >energy so removed from the He* depends on the wavelength of the >electron at the moment of wavefunction collapse, so is a stochastic >variable. It depends on the momentum distribution between He4, electron, and neutron. Since there are three particles, a broad spectrum is to be expected. For DD fusion this isn't so. If Deflation Fusion is a valid mechanism, then the electron should always get the overwhelming majority, since the energy (and momentum) is only distributed over two particles, the He4 and the electron. > >I think only the D-T reaction energy data can be expected to provide >a precise answer to what mechanism is at work in cold fusion. > >Best regards, > >Horace Heffner >http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/ > > > Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
