The higher the temperature of the surrounding material, the greater the rate of nuclear reactions given stationary neutrons.
On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 11:15 AM, David Roberson <[email protected]> wrote: > I was considering the behavior of ultra low momentum neutrons within a > metallic structure and a question arose. Why would the local temperature > of the nickel atoms not completely dominate the activity of the low > momentum neutrons? > > As we all are aware, temperature of operation for LENR devices is > typically around 1000 K or more which is far beyond that associated with > the ULM neutrons of the W&L theory. This elevated temperature of the > metal atoms reflects rapid movement of the nuclei as they bound back and > forth within their electron cloud inside metal matrix. One would expect > the relative motion of the two bodies (nucleus and neutron) involved in the > reaction to be the key determining factor in the net interaction and not > the motion of just one. For this reason, I find it perplexing to discuss > just the neutron energy when we consider these interactions. > > The other possibility to consider is that higher energy neutrons might > have an advantage in many situations as they pass through the metal volume. > Each metal nuclei must undergo many accelerations as it trades momentum > and energy with its brother atoms. This would appear as a continuous range > of velocities with time. An elevated temperature for these atoms would > suggest that they change direction more times per second as it rises. > During the brief period of time that the neutrons are nearby, perhaps a > match in velocity occurs which allows the neutron to be exposed to the > large capture cross section associated with the near zero relative velocity. > > For a reaction such as that hypothesized above to be important the > interaction time frame must be very short. The temperature caused > movements are mechanical in nature and should be slow as compared to > quantum mechanical reactions such as the absorption of a neutron by a > nearby nucleus. Does information exist which can confirm that the quantum > mechanical effects are of short duration in such a case? Also, how far can > the quantum mechanical interaction reach away from the nucleus if the > relative velocity of the pair is actually zero at a finite point in time? > > Dave >
