In reply to Michel Jullian's message of Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:09:25 +0200: Hi, [snip] >No it wouldn't be, but even with my limited QM skills, I know that fortunately >you don't have to get that close for nuclear fusion. Nucleus is fm scale >(10^-15 m), but its De Broglie wavelength (roughly the distance at which >tunneling can start occurring) at even room temperature thermal energy is >quite sizeable, 0.78 Å IIRC, about 100000 times larger, and even more at >higher energies of course.
Actually De Broglie wavelengths *decrease* with energy. (momentum is in the denominator). > >So an impinging deuteron getting only as close as say 0.5 Å from the desorbing >deuteron would have good chances to tunnel to it and fuse I think, correct me >someone if I am wrong. The chances are a lot less than "good". What you need is a means of keeping them in close proximity for extended periods. e.g. the fusion half-life of D2 (with a separation distance of about 0.7 Angstrom is > 1E80 years. However this decreases insanely with separation distance. A decrease in distance by about a factor of 10-20 should be enough to reduce it to the point where fusion would be a practical energy source. [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk The shrub is a plant.
