From: Alain Sepeda Does tritium hydride exhibit measurable spontaneous fusion via proton tunneling?
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/73899/does-tritium-hydride-exhibi t-measurable-spontaneous-fusion-via-proton-tunneling First off, tritium hydride - even if proton tunneling were to occur, is unlikely to fuse into helium at all unless it was part of a coincidental beta decay. However, tritium deuteride would be a much better candidate to fuse, if that is what is meant in the original poser. At any rate - when we assume spontaneous fusion of TD is what is meant by the question, this negative answers from a "self-appointed expert" shows a good example of how "a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing". ("dangerous" in the sense of completely wrong in certain circumstances). Here is his error: "In a tritium [deuteride] molecule you do get the benefit of repeated barrier assaults at a high frequency. The frequency of barrier assaults might be 10^14 Hz (i.e., molecular vibrations have frequencies that lie roughly in the infrared range). But clearly when you multiply the two factors, you get something that will never have happened in the observable universe in the time since the big bang.Essentially the same estimate explains why cold fusion doesn't work." END of quotation from "self-appointed expert". Now we must admit that this is true in many circumstances - but not all - and thus is embarrassingly wrong since the expert wants to generalize his answer to all cases, and at the same time to "slime" cold fusion. Shame on you. He is wrong as a general rule because of the assumption that tritium deuteride must always exist as the normal molecular isomer which is a volatile gas, or liquid at best. However, IRH - inverted Rydberg hydrogen has been shown to have an effective density which is over 20,000 times higher - and thus will fuse spontaneously with exponentially higher probability due to tunneling. Make no mistake, such spontaneous fusion will still be rare - but observable. Most "experts" including this one, have heard of Rydberg matter but do not realize that it can be engineered to occur in mundane circumstances that promote tunneling. Yes, one can argue that IRH is no longer a "molecule" in the Rydberg state, but the original question does not demand any particular structure. One way to envision the inverted Rydberg state is as espoused by Holmlid and Miley. IRD or Inverted Rydberg Deuterium (UDD or ultra dense deuterium, is another designation and is Holmlid's favorite) have been documented. Many of Holmlid's publications can be found on his home page below. Holmlid is the leading expert on Rydberg matter. Miley's further arguments are convincing and help explain the reality of LENR (in the context of dense hydrogen). I have seen no valid criticism of these findings. http://www2.chem.gu.se/~holmlid/ Thus we see real evidence in the Lab that hydrogen can form into a very dense surface layer, and this apparently happens even in the vacuum of Space. The dense coating loses its volatility. Hydrogen isotopes are the lowest energy states of Rydberg Matter - the same density status as a liquid or solid. The bond distance is 153 pm, or 2.9 times the Bohr radius in the non-inverted state. A much denser state exists, however, and has been documented by Holmlid which he calls ultra-dense deuterium, and there is the expectation that tritium deuteride would conform to the same parameters. BTW - the asteroid Vesta is presumed to be coated with a surface layer of dense hydrogen as detected by NASA. It is not yet proved that this layer is indeed Rydberg matter but the smart money says it is. Miley believes both H, D, and T will densify, but Holmlid seems to suggest deuterium densifies preferentially (as a boson). In any case, all hydrogen should densify under proper circumstances. In the inverse state, the isotope separation distance is far smaller, equal to 2.3 pm or 60 times closer in one dimension. Its effective hydrogen density is extremely large >130 kg /cm3. Due to the shorter separation distance, D-D fusion and especially T-D fusion is expected to take place in this material at vastly increased rates. Within this hypothetical kg of IRH, where the isotopes were predominantly mixed T and D, most of the activity would be decay of T but there should be measurable spontaneous fusions to Helium of a few reactions per hour (rough calculation). IRH is the feature which can explain why some meteorites are apparently much more powerful than they should be, including the recent one witness in Chelyabinsk. At any rate, the hydrogen surface layer even in deep space has been documented - see the NASA results from the Dawn probe. The reason all of this came up earlier is that Tunguska, Chelyabinsk, and Clovis (Y-D) - and all of these explosions may have occurred due to a common denominator which is dense hydrogen as IRH which would be fused on entry into earth's atmosphere. That is the interesting hypothesis worth looking at in the context of LENR, or hot fusion of dense deuterium on a surface layer on some asteroids or comets. Our future could depend on proper understanding of dense hydrogen. The demise of the Clovis culture should be adequate proof of that. Jones
