On 02/01/2010 08:41 PM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: > At 02:25 PM 2/1/2010, Stephen A. Lawrence wrote: > >> On 02/01/2010 01:25 PM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: >> >> > Unless it's fusion. With a small condensate, and in the BEC state, any >> > fusion could generate enough energy to disrupt the condensate, >> > immediately. Energetic particles could be created that would, indeed, >> > escape the trap, but it might be only one fusion, very difficult to >> > detect a single event and distinguish it from background unless the >> > experiment was specially set up to do this. The matter in the >> condensate >> > is pure rubidium 85, with the electrons, and BEC fusion may not act in >> > the ways that are expected from fusion. >> >> I haven't been following this thread, but... >> >> Rubidium-85 ... FUSING? >> >> Isn't that endothermic? We way past iron here. > > Could be. Any experimental data? Specific to Rubidium-85? >
Nope. That was just a snap judgement based on the binding energy curve, which has iron at the extremum. In general, elements heavier than iron cost energy to fuse, elements lighter than iron release energy when they fuse. Here's the curve, courtesy of Wikipedia: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg That string looks broken; let's try it here: http://tinyurl.com/ykb7kg6
