In reply to Jones Beene's message of Sat, 19 Feb 2011 10:43:01 -0800: Hi, [snip] >Interesting 24 year old paper > >http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.ms.17.080187.000305 > >It has been known for some time that the "effective mass" of electrons can >appear to have a value much greater than free or valence electrons. This >can be a factor of 10,000:1 in some circumstances, perhaps higher. Heavy >electrons can be associated with superconductivity and exotic forms of >magnetism. The Heffner LENR theory incorporates this: > >http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/DeflationFusion2.pdf > >It could be an open question whether or not such an electron can "nucleate" >a large number of protons at moderate temperatures into a dense form. There >are a number of terms used to describe such "clusters" including "pycno" and >IRH (inverted Rydberg hydrogen).
I think the effects they are talking about are due to the fact that the electron "sea" in a metal, to some extent, acts as a rigid mass (this is one step further than a liquid, but conveys the concept better). IOW the repulsive force between the tightly packed electrons means that when you try to move one, you actually need to move several, so the one you are trying to move appears to have a larger mass. If my understanding is correct, then I don't see how this would make it more effective in nucleating condensation of protons, because the "extra" mass is not collocated with the original electron, so it's not as though it's actually a heavy electron that can by analogy substitute for a negative muon. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
