Here are a few further musings on this fine paper. The electron assisted neutron exchange process is interesting for nickel since the yield is almost 600 keV for each of the two see-saw isotopes. This is on the high side of what can remain "gammaless". The downside is that Ni61 is only 1+% of natural nickel, and it is required for all 3 exothermic reactions. In practice this would probably limit the lifetime of the reaction severely without some kind of enrichment.
The downside for Rossi - if this theory is correct, is that he blew it and has little IP protection ... since essentially, in his filing, Rossi bet the farm on Ni62 being the active isotope. However, it is unlikely that the neutron exchange reaction is the only gainful reaction in any experiment, or even a main reaction - and it could be only contributory. It could be one of a dozen pathways, any of which will reinforce the probability of others in a synergetic way. Here are a few of the most viable hypotheses for gain - well over a dozen of them. But the most controversial suggestion is that these are not mutually exclusive, and that several or even ALL of them could be at work simultaneously and contributory in a given experiment which has the necessary components. There is not even a good candidate for "most likely" IMHO. * The original theory of P&F applicable to palladium and deuterium, involving fusion to helium or tritium caused by coherent electron effects (screening) * Coulomb mediated reactions in general, including the deflation fusion model of Horace Heffner. * The "hydrino" (fractional hydrogen) mechanism of Randell Mills. * The dense hydrogen or dense deuterium model, differentiated by Miley and others as inverted Rydberg hydrogen or a DDL (deep Dirac layer). * The Storms mechanism for NiH, which envisions protons fusing to deuterium via screening in a specific kind of NAE site, evolved from "fractofusion. * The NASA effort (US 20110255645) suggests a method for producing "heavy electrons" as a fusion catalyst (screening). * The Yeong Kim (Zubarev) proposal of a BEC Bose-Einstein Condensate * The Takahashi tetrahedral TSC model is similar to the BEC. * The beta decay/ ultracold neutron mechanism popularized by Widom-Larsen which is similar to a Focardi/ Rossi/ Brillouin/ NASA explanation. * Polariton catalysis in general - which is a theory involving plasmons, surface phonons and photons. This is more of an "enabler" pathway. * Casimir dynamics, in general including a dynamical effect. This is also an "enabler" pathway as are other geometry constraints. * Accelerated nuclear decay. Some experiments benefit from long-lived but unstable isotopes like potassium-40. * RPF or reversible proton fusion, which is based on the strong force, QCD and a transient state, the diproton, deriving energy from quark or gluon mass. * The "nanomagnetism" ideas of Brian Ahern - which is a formative theory involving magnons and cyclical phase change around the Curie point of Ni. * Any combination or permutation of the above - since none of them is mutually exclusive and most experiments cannot be defined by a single hypothesis. There are many more, especially variations and refinements. Pardon me if I have overlooked your favorite, but this is a running effort and your favorite may appear on the next list.
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