In reply to Abd ul-Rahman Lomax's message of Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:21:56 -0400: Hi, [snip] >>How Does Hagelstein Explain >>Energetic Alphas? > >>Theoretical Speculations on Upper Limits: >>The alpha particle must be born with an >>energy less than 20.3 KeV. >>(Pay no attention to Lipson et al. 2002 11-16 MeV alphas, >>Oriani and Fisher, SPAWAR) >>- Hagelstein, Peter L. (Communicated by Edmund >>Storms) "Constraints on Energetic >>Particles in the FleischmannPons Experiment,"Naturwissenschaften, DOI >>10.1007/s00114-009-0644-4, Feb. 9, 2010 > >That's a very important paper, just published. >Krivit has completely misunderstood it. This is a >review of the theoretical considerations, and >Hagelstein is reporting the result of his >investigations. Look at the title: this paper >isn't pushing some conclusion other than noting a >very difficult problem, one that is fundamental >to the history of the field. If his analysis is >correct, nearly every proposed theory of cold >fusion implies a prediction that is contrary to >experimental result. They would predict energetic >alphas at significantly higher levels and frequency than are actually found. > >Hagelstein is writing about the basic reaction >and the preponderance of results. He's not >denying that some reaction branches would produce >energetic alphas, neutrons, etc. He is saying >that to match experimental results, the helium >must be *normally* "born" with less than 20.3 >KeV. I don't know the limits, i.e., how >frequently it could happen that higher energy alphas were emitted. > >Basically, Hagelstein is saying that we don't know what's going on. [snip] I haven't read Hagelstein's paper, but it seems to me that one must base any such analysis on individual experiments where both He and heat are measured concurrently and as precisely as possible. Consider the possibility that Hydrino formation is providing a large proportion of the heat. That would be heat way beyond normal chemistry, yet yield no ionizing radiation. Of course some of the Deuterinos would undergo fusion, possibly resulting in He4. Therefore it is imperative that both He4 and heat be measured in the same experiment, and that conclusions not be drawn from one set of measurements taken from one experiment, and another set from another experiment.
BTW I find the whole idea of using the volume of the cathode to compare energy densities "proving" some form of fusion to be silly. Clearly the volume of electrolyte is of far more consequence, given that it is this which contains the putative fuel anyway. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
