On Sat, Jan 18, 2014 at 11:30 AM, David Roberson <[email protected]> wrote:
One of my favorite concepts is that the electric field induced by the > rapidly changing magnetic field could accelerate protons so that they > fuse. This would be a form of hot fusion if active. > In the context of known physics, a p+p reaction will not go anywhere very quickly (unless Jones is right about "reversible proton fusion"). The proton-proton chain that is thought to power the sun relies upon a step in which a very unstable and short-lived [pp]* state is followed by a beta-plus decay to get a deuteron (and a positron and electron neutrino). This second step depends upon the weak interaction and is extremely slow, and hence unfavored. If the weak interaction were faster, the sun would rapidly burn through its fuel (or perhaps explode). For this reason, people proposing a p+p reaction of some kind in the context of LENR are compelled either to modify the application of the weak interaction (as in the case of Ed Storms, who seems to be saying that it just doesn't apply to the hydroton) or increase the rate of beta-plus decay by localizing energy in the system to get a neutron (Widom and Larsen) or do something else along these lines. It is the weak interaction that is causing their explanations so much difficulty. Because the weak interaction is (normally) so slow, I find the d+p, d+d, p+Ni, etc., reactions much more promising. Eric
