Lou, Interesting paper. The conditions explored in the paper, if I've understood them, are the Compton scattering of high energy photons on hydrogen atoms in the midst of a low energy laser field. The energy of the laser field is significantly below that of a typical transition frequency of the target electron in the ground state. To make things concrete, I take this to mean much less than the ionization potential of hydrogen, 13.6 eV; so significantly greater than 91 nm, in the ultraviolet range.
This situation might be a good lower bound for the kind of photon field that would arise in the nuclear active area leading up to or following upon a reaction. My reading of the qualitative sections of the paper suggests that even at the lower bound, funny things happen. Two additional quotes worth mentioning: "We will see, however, that not only the electron spectra can be dramatically modified by the coupling with a relatively weak laser field but also that this field may noticeably influence the properties of the outgoing high-energy photon." (p. 8.) "The main effect of the laser field is the shift of the maximum in the photon energy spectrum towards lower frequencies." (p. 11.) It will be a while before I am able to make use of the field theory equations, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately). Three questions arise: (1) How relevant are the initial conditions of the paper to the state of the nuclear active environment at any point in its evolution? (2) How accurate is the model developed in the paper for what it's exploring? (3) And what are the constraints that the model, if accurate, places on what we are considering? >From what I have read of some other papers recently, at higher energies some additional processes arise: - Hard photons (far greater than 511 keV) scatter off of soft photons (far less than 511 keV), yielding electron-positron pairs in a successive cascade of interactions, losing energy in the process. - Hard photons scatter off of electrons and positrons. - Hard photons scatter off of one another. - Accelerating protons yield pairs, giving off energy and providing additional targets for hard photons. If the circumstances are right, the "optical depth" of the hard photons can reach 1, in which case the "catastrophic loss" of the hard photons, or their exit from the volume representing the system, reaches zero. The circumstances for such an optical depth are remarkably stable and attainable in the cosmological case provided there's a magnetic field. The tricky part is that for at least one equilibrium condition the magnetic field must be high for hard photons in the lower range (at or above 300 MeV). The magnetic field is what gives rise to the pair production in the several equilibrium conditions that are seen to result in the complete absorption of hard photons. I think there is another equilibrium condition that does not depend as much upon the magnetic field. Some rather exciting graphs describe these equilibrium conditions: Figure 5, page 6, of http://arxiv.org/pdf/1105.3852.pdf. I think the graph says that when the "compactness" of the luminosity of soft photons and hard photons is equal, anything above 10^4 eV disappears from the spectrum, except for a sharp peak. I do not know how to interpret the peak; it could be the 511 keV of the electron-positron annihilation photons, although I think it is too far to left for this. Figure 1, page 10, of http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0701633.pdf. Here the regions above the solid black line are ones in which complete hard photon absorption arises. These graphs are for the cosmological case. I get the impression the gamma quenching is taken as a given for certain astrophysical systems and is not controversial. I'm hoping I can tease apart the models that are used for these calculations like one might disassemble a watch and then put them back together and see if equilibrium conditions are possible for lower energies and weaker magnetic fields. The system in my mind at this point is that of a volume of ionized protons being propelled by high energy photons with enough energy to accelerate them significantly and cause them collide with deuterium and helium nuclei. Perhaps on occasion the collisions are sufficient for fusion, resulting in the injection of additional hard photons into the cavity and the maintenance of a field of soft photons and other targets sufficient to cause the hard photons to completely scatter. One question I have is whether a nonthermal distribution of protons that are in synchrony with the cavity mode would ever be possible. Eric On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 11:06 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: Eric, > > It appears that the photon-stopping power of electrons which are "dressed" > in electromagnetic fields may be much greater than that of bare electrons > - i.e., "dressed" electrons that are exchanging large numbers of virtual > photons with nearby nuclei and other electrons in magnetic and coulomb > interactions. See: > > " On Compton scattering of energetic photons by light atoms in the > presence of a low-frequency electromagnetic field" > > > http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:919561:1/component/escidoc:919560/COMPT777.pdf > > The gist of the paper is stated on page 3: > "...that spectra of both emitted electrons and scattered photons can be > remarkably modified by the interaction with a weak low-frequency laser > field." > > Perhaps even greater effects occur in intense e-m fields generated in > carbon and metal nanostructures. > > However, since gammas would not even be generated in some proposed LENR > theories (e.g., neutron capture), this may be moot. > > I have some more data, but not enough time to post it right now. > > -- Lou Pagnucco
