In reply to Axil Axil's message of Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:11:00 -0400: Hi Axil, [snip] >If polaritons as used for coulomb screening, because the polariton is a >boson, the Pauli Exclusion Principle and the chemical potential gradient >that it generates are not applicable. > I see several problems with this approach.
1) The electron in a SPP is part of an exciton. The other part of the exciton is positively charged, so the ensemble is neutral. That doesn't make for very good screening. 2) The fact that SPPs are Bosons only means that they can occupy the same energy state, not that they can be physically packed into a small volume. In fact, since the positive half of the exciton is essentially a charge absence in the lattice, it will probably have a spatial density proportional to that of the lattice itself, implying that the spatial density of the SPPs will also be proportional to that of the lattice itself. This in turn, means that the density of the exciton electrons is not likely to be much greater than lattice atom density. 3) In order for significant shielding to exist at the femtometer distances required for fusion to occur in a human lifetime, at least one electron needs to be at least occasionally, between the target nucleus and the approaching proton/deuteron. 4) Lattice atomic spacing is tens of thousands of times larger than the separation distance needed for fusion. Conclusion:- SPPs can't provide any meaningful shielding above and beyond that afforded by conductance band electrons in a metal. Please show me the error of my ways. ;) Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
