-----Original Message----- From: Harry Veeder "According to Robin reduced-mass neutrons can form spontaneously, but rarely, when an electron is captured by a nucleus. Would it be possible to exchange the seven miracles for one miracle of a reduced-mass neutron from a free electron and free proton/deuteron?"
Unfortunately, it is not that simple and may still involve three or four miracles; at least when the target nucleus is stable and does not decay by EC. Hydrogen and deuterium are stable and cannot decay by EC. Nickel is not known to undergo EC either. The electron capture alone would be one miracle, but it would not be enough. As for outright capture of an electron by any nucleus having a transmutation effect, you must realize that the proton consists of three quarks, like the neutron - but NOT the same three. This is why EC alone is not enough to change a proton into a neutron. One of the quarks must be replaced for the change to occur. An electron anti-neutrino in combination with the electron is one way this can be done, and that is one of W-L's seven miracles. This is due to conservation of baryon number and other details, which are above my pay grade to explain. Baryon number is conserved in the interactions of the Standard Model, so violation of that would require another miracle, equivalent to conservation of energy. The neutron consists of two down-quarks and one up-quark with heavier charge, and the decay of one of the down quarks into a lighter up quark can be achieved by the interaction of a W boson but that does not normally happen the other way. This means the neutron decays into a proton (which contains one down and two up quarks), an electron, and an electron antineutrino. The reverse can happen, but not without the neutrino. Neutrinos are seldom absorbed by matter. In an LENR cell, a few neutrino absorptions per year could be expected. That is the third or fourth miracle. I lost count. Miracles do happen, and the Standard Model can change if and when this is proved; and maybe three interconnected miracles can happen at once to change the model, due to some factor which is yet unknown. Seven is a long way beyond the pale, all the way to Tipperary. … especially the last one - about gammas being ~100% downshifted to IR. ROTFL. Jones
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