The R&D in the reference below is almost a decade old and comes from the mainstream of physics - (and courtesy of your tax dollars and NIST) and . it can relate to LENR in an unintended way, via the route of what has been called:
1) Temporal or temporary BEC 2) Virtual BEC 3) Quasi BEC 4) And other designations going all the way back to 1989 5) More recently: pycnodeuterium, or deuterium clusters, or ultra-dense deuterium, or Rydberg matter None of these are mentioned here, of course: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/bosenova.htm However, this article could (almost) offer a valid but unintended alternative explanation for LENR via one or more secondary mechanisms, following a BEC "excursion" - especially if helium-4 were to be seen. It was not, and moreover the energy released is tiny, yet it is the *dynamics* of the BEC which are enticing. A ZPE (Dirac epo field) explanation is also not ruled out, when helium is not found. The main "leap of faith" is that a process which is proved to happen in very cold conditions, can happen less frequently in a temporal or QM situation - since "coldness" can be mimicked by other restraints - including time dilation, internal pressurization, magnetic alignment and "overvoltage". I have paraphrased the article without changing the content to make it compatible with an alternative view: In a Bose-Einstein condensate, ultra-cold bosons (integer spin) can coalesce into the lowest-energy quantum mechanical state. In effect, they become superimposed on one another, each indistinguishable from the other, creating what has been called a "super-atom." In quantum-dynamic terms, the same "wave function" describes them all. By making a Bose-Einstein condensate and then changing the magnetic field, the researcher can adjust the wavefunction's self-interaction between repulsion and attraction. If the self-interaction is repulsive, all the parts of the wavefunction push each other away. If it is attractive, they all pull towards each other, like gravity. Making the self-interaction mildly repulsive causes the condensate to swell up in a controlled manner, as predicted by theory. However, when the magnetic field is adjusted to make the interaction attractive, dramatic and very unexpected effects are observed. The condensate first shrinks as expected, but rather than gradually clumping together in a tighter mass, there is instead a sudden explosion of atoms outward. This "explosion," continues for a few thousandths of a second. Left behind is a small remnant and about half the original atoms seem to have vanished ! in that they are not seen in either the remnant or the expanding explosion. Since the phenomenon looks very much like a tiny supernova, or exploding star, it has been dubbed it a "Bosenova." The most surprising thing about the Bosenova is that the fundamental physical process behind the explosion is still a mystery. END of paraphrase Hmm .. No, it does not mention fusion as a possibility, but what about the "half the original atoms seem to have vanished" ? Well the good folks at NIST got so many questions and flak about this provocative claim that they added an addenda and caveat to the article, later: "The 'missing' atoms are almost certainly still around in some form, but just not in a form that we can detect them in our current experiment". "The two likely possibilities are [mundane] . and do not indicate an energy anomaly. However, and this is my take on the way the story has evolved in the intervening years: the one thing about ZPE that is looming as a current issue, and one which demands more attention than it has ever received is this: ZPE is looking more and more like an "energy sink" instead of an "energy source" . . but do not fear vorticians - perhaps it can be both. But if it only operates an energy sink, then even so, as anyone who has followed this emerging viewpoint is aware, an energy sink can be almost as valuable for alternative energy, if not more so - than a true energy source . since we already have an adequate source. It is hidden away in the 300 degree K "ambient" blackbody field that we are so accustomed to living in ("swimming in") - that we seldom look at it as a source. And ironically, it is not a source without the sink. There is a pun in there somewhere (sink or swim?) but I will leave it for the others punsters to take a shot at. Jones
