As a parting shot, so to speak - let me chime in with a couple of comments on Fran's behalf - and others who see cavity-QED as the best answer to understanding the thermal gain in Ni-H (as opposed to the other proposed transmutation reactions, including Piantelli, Focardi etc. since they should exhibit strong residual radioactivity, which is not seen in any data).
The finding of high speed protons in a cloud chamber - even if their mass-energy on average is less than the several MeV claimed - is most consistent with a "quark-based hypothesis" for explaining the gain. This is not "nuclear," per se, but instead is "subnuclear". The hypothesis does involve the conversion of nuclear mass into energy. And it is dependent of cavity-QED as the initial driving force. This hypothesis is an outgrowth and enhancement of Nyman's modeling of quark interaction, together with the assumption of having IRH - Inverted Rydberg hydrogen - being formed continuously in the reactor from hydrogen spillover, collecting in cavities and other details which have the effect of putting protons into close proximity - within occasional strong force attraction. http://dipole.se/ In this paper, simulations made with two different kinds of physics software both show the following: 1. Two protons placed closely together will repel each other most of the time. 2. Two protons shot at each other will bounce off and repel each other most of the time. 3. However, it is occasionally possible to shoot two protons at each other with the right speed and *quark alignment* so that they latch onto each other instead of repel... IOW quark placement can overcome Coulomb repulsion, in standard physics. No magic, or new physics, required (so far). This is where Nyman fails to make the right conclusion. He opines the protons will fuse, which is impossible in these conditions. However, the net reaction which is instigated by strong force attraction will still be gainful; and the driving force must be depletion of nuclear mass (by default). However, this reaction does not result in either fusion or transmutation normally. It does result in fast protons and on occasion these may cause secondary reactions, but net gain is there without anything else. This suggestion is an alternative to the P-e-P reaction where no deflated or other improbable kind of electron is involved, and in the end NO fusion occurs. Two protons in this circumstance would have severe negative binding energy, so several things could happen, besides fusion. This is where Nyman falls short - since all we need to know to explain the net gain without nuclear transmutation is that strong force attraction happens (which essentially the "free" ingredient) followed by some kind of energetic expulsion. Net nuclear mass of the reacting protons is slightly depleted by the extracted energy (from gluons pions, etc) and this depletion will be recovered from the zero point field eventually, in order to maintain an expected "average mass value" of ~ 938.272013 MeV which can vary significantly in individual atoms. As to the simulation's observation of "occasionally possible to shoot two protons at each other with the right speed and quark positions" that rings of the importance of cavity-QED. This is where protons emerge from Casimir cavities with the "right speed" having experienced the Scharnhorst-type acceleration. IOW, building on this mechanism, even when deuterium is not seen in the ash of the reaction, there is a clear route to strong "subnuclear" gain via proton acceleration away from another superimposed proton - with which it CANNOT fuse. ... but, needless to say, the complete details are not clear. Jones
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