Resend- with one specific example of a “magic number” applicable to LENR…
The connection of magic numbers could involve palladium and nickel, plus dense hydrogen or pycno, as the inducer of the reaction. No surprise that Pd or Ni would be involved, but many permutations of the numbers-game are possible. For this to be applicable to Rossi, one would need to assume that the copper he sees is from electro-migration from the tube wall; and that the nickel isotope imbalance he also sees, is explained herein. This assumes he is using palladium as one of the secret ingredients, not yet specified. These two proton conductors are by far the most important electrode metals in the broader field, used most often as the host matrix. Arata has made it clear that an alloy of nickel and palladium is up to 10 times more effective than Pd alone for reactions with no external energy input. But are both active for actual participation in the reaction itself? Pd has 46 protons, which is not magic - nickel has 28 which is magic. Is there any additional magic from a pycno contribution, which could favor some kind of ‘re-arrangement’ such as where Pd transmutes to Ni (plus whatever else is favorable)? IOW – nickel is too stable to be a reactant. Calcium with 20 protons is also magic and doubly magic in the 20/20 isotope, so it would be highly favored to be a transmutation product. But the simplest pycno magic isomer (2 protons) will not work for that reaction, due to the excess neutrons in the Pd. No neutrons are seen, so we have to go from there. The good news is the next magic number will work on paper, and if the pycno can be found in units of 8, then this makes it worth investigating in terms of a review of the past published results, which is what I am attempting to do. It should also be noted that Nickel-62 has the highest binding energy per nucleon of any isotope for any element in the periodic table, when including the electron shell in the calculation. That’s right, even more than iron! ... so in terms of “magic+stability” this isotope would be the favored candidate to be found in the ash. (and to explain the isotope shift in nickel in a way that makes it a non-reactant). OK … even so, we all agree that there is no known pathway for palladium to fission into nickel and calcium, or to fission at all, for that matter. Fission almost always involves free neutrons and very heavy ‘fissile’ elements with non-integer spin. However, calcium and nickel and carbon often turn up in the ash of LENR following long gainful runs. Is there a QM form of nuclear “disintegration” for palladium (as opposed to a thermonuclear fission or beta decay) ? and could it involve integer spin and be much more energetic than a weak force reaction? For now, all we can ask is: can we rule out a form of neutron-less “QM fission” of palladium which tends to reduce enthalpy in participating nuclei? No - is the immediate answer, unless you are in the mainstream of physics - but it is a long shot, yet I’m certain of one thing. This suggestion is NO less likely, in the abstract or in the available evidence, than is the infamously unlikely “ultra low momentum” neutron. In fact the evidence tends to favor a QM fissile reaction, when we look just at what typically turns up in nuclear ash. Sure, the skeptics will label it as numerology and/or ‘magic’ and this connotes a non-scientific approach, but let’s look at the data - before writing this off. Experiment rules! The palladium reactions we are interested in would involve pycno in the magic number of 8 nucleons, and the putative reaction might result in three magic nuclear rearrangements; and with more net stability (lower enthalpy) than before, and also with elements which are well documented in prior experiment, in LENR ash. Here is one candidate: 108Pd + p*8 -> 62Ni + 40Ca + 14C (p*8 stands for pycno with the magical 8 protons). Other variations of QM fission with no free neutrons are possible. A massive amount of excess energy is available, so it does not take much palladium to account for the heat seen in the Rossi device, if any of these dense hydrogen cluster reactions are responsible. This one is an example of many which are possible if p*8 is being formed from spillover. Isotope 108Pd and 106Pd seem to be the most active isotopes in palladium for nuclear reactions (for the Pd-D reaction, as documented in 1991). But this reaction often comes with evidence in the form of helium (with D2 instead of H2). When hydrogen replaces deuterium, these two Pd isotopes would likely still be the most active, but the helium tends to disappear in favor of heavier transmutation products. As far-out as this may seem, it is falsifiable – unlike many others. The confirmation would come from isotope testing - in which the palladium, in the reaction above, should be depleted in the 108 isotope … together with the appearance of rare carbon 14. If the two rarities are found together, against extreme odds - well … the combination of events would be extraordinarily convincing. As far back as 1991, Mizuno discovered that about 30% of both Pd108 and 106 Pd turns up “missing” after a long run with excess heat. The other isotopes of palladium are increased in proportion, indicating they did not participate. These two arguably are the main isotopes involved in LENR, if his conclusions remain accurate. This work was with deuterium. He did not test for carbon at that time … but, in later work in different experiments, Miley, Mizuno and others have found extraordinary high amounts of 14C which is easy to spot (since it is the standard used for radiocarbon dating). What is missing, to seal the deal for any kind of QM fission pathway - is to find these predicted isotopic anomalies together (for instance, the reduction in 108Pd and the presence of 14C) in the same experiment in which pycno hydrogen is present. For instance, if an Arata-type experiment with hydrogen instead of deuterium, turns up these two anomalies, then that would be not just meaningful, but tantamount to full proof, given the tiny probabilities involved. All that can be done now is to prepare the fringes of fizzix for yet another seemingly unlikely hypothesis – to be dubbed “QM fission.” But, to be candid, if it is found in the Rossi device, it will most likely happen due mostly to another element much heavier than palladium (as the secret “catalyst”) and with a more unstable nucleus… but also with integer spin. Jones
