As most of us know by now, the Greek word 'pycnos' means 'dense' . and it is pretty trendy these days to toss the term around obsessively in a few circles, so to speak . tight circles. It is almost a meme-in-progress.
. mention 'pycno' and 'nano' often enough and somebody might even think you are a deep thinker. I'll try to get in my fair share of other jargon as well :) We have mentioned the so-called "Lawson criterion" several times on vortex - in the context that there could be a similar figure of merit for LENR and the two might even be related mathematically, in the end. The Lawson criterion in plasma fusion defines the conditions needed to reach "ignition" which is a steady state sufficient to maintain the temperature of the reaction against all losses. It is said to be a "triple" product of time, density, and temperature but that is not completely accurate as both the "time" and "temperature" components are triggers, and drop from view so long as density -- which is by far the biggest issue, does not change. The temperature part of the triple product, specifically can be in the range of 100 million degrees. Maintaining high density, however, is the huge problem for hot fusion and for magnetic confinement and we have wasted perhaps $ 50 billion over the decades (or more) to figure that one out - except that the tenured geniuses on the dole - those who benefit generously from the dead-end hot fusion programs seem NOT to have learned this lesson very well. More and larger boondoggles are being promoted as we speak. Let us pray for a dose of sanity to strike the funders at DoE this year. That aside - the little 'gem' of insight which I hope to push your way via this post is that pycnodeuterium, and/or the many other terms which are showing up to express the high density hydrogen isotope idea: pycnodeuterium hydrino (deuterino) f/H or fractional hydrogen redundant ground state hydrogen deuterium clusters Rydberg matter quasi-BEC or warm-BEC ultra-dense deuterium . all of them can suggest in differing ways the underlying notion notion that by increasing the effective density 100 million times over the plasma state, mas o menos, the Lawson criterion triple product can be met at 100 million degrees lower temperature . mas o menos. Forgive the rounding errors, rounders. . time being essentially infinite in either case. As well it should be. Jones
