On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 3:11 PM, Kevin O'Malley <[email protected]> wrote:
Physicists in Japan have shown that "entirely end-bonded" multi-walled > carbon nanotubes can superconduct at temperatures as high as 12 K, which is > 30 times greater than for single-walled carbon nanotubes. > It's always good to look at the applicability of a piece of research that is suggestive. At 12 K, this particular effect appears at a temperature 81 times smaller than the neighborhood of 973 K (700 C) sometimes discussed in connection with LENR. A cooper pair is a quasiparticle -- a combination of two electrons that are weakly bound by their interaction with phonons in the metal. BCS superconductivity is a delicate effect, which is why low temperatures are needed. When the temperatures increase beyond a certain level, far below 700 C, the heat in the environment overwhelms the effect and it disappears. I myself first learned about the delicate nature of quasiparticles by asking a different question, one about a "dipolariton" -- a quasiparticle involving a photon and an electron: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/23640/what-interactions-would-take-place-between-a-free-proton-and-a-dipolariton The comments go into more detail and were very helpful. The important point in the present context is that the kinds of superconductivity that we know of (normal and so-called "high-temperature") have only been confirmed at very low temperatures. There are details in some of the LENR experiments that are suggestive in some respects of superconductivity, such as a drop in resistance in electrolytic cells. But either we should look to other explanations first, or we should be prepared to explain how an effect that is normally seen near absolute zero is now appearing in very hot nickel. If anyone on this list states with great assurance that superconductivity is occurring in LENR, it would be good to ask for more information about the sources they're drawing on to get to that conclusion. Be on the lookout for blatant non-sequitors. Eric
