On Dec 9, 2009, at 10:05 AM, Steven Krivit wrote:
At 06:43 AM 12/9/2009, you wrote:
On Dec 8, 2009, at 9:03 PM, Steven Krivit wrote:
Horace,
Have you considered the possibility of "neutral entities" such
as neutrons?
Steve
Yes, I have considered it.
Excellent.
Neutrons in the lattice can not be an explanation for the number
of events required to produce even modest excess heat.
I think your reasoning is because of neutron activation. (correct
me if I am wrong.)
Have you considered ultra-low momentum neutrons, as proposed by WL
that never even leave the local environment, and which therefore
would not cause NA, or very little NA?
Steve
Yes, I have considered that. If ultra slow neutrons can not move far
enough to effect NA then they can not effect heavy element
transmutation LENR with the closest atoms, the lattice heavy
elements. Fusion with a hydrogen atom that is typically even further
away than the nearby lattice heavy elements is then also precluded.
CF is known to happen below the surface, within the lattice. Whether
it also happens on the surface due to collective surface oscillations
as suggested by Windom and Larsen is immaterial. An explanation of CF
needs to cover all observations, not just a select few.
The distance between lattice sites, i.e. the distance from the
potential well an absorbed hydrogen nucleus occupies (a lattice site)
and the adjacent potential well another hydrogen atom can occupy, is
less than the distance between a lattice site and the adjacent
lattice atoms.
Windom and Larsen estimate slow neutrons to be absorbed in less than
a nanometer, 10^-9 meter, about 10 angstroms. That is about 10
hydrogen atoms, or 3 Pd atoms in width. If neutrons can make it 0.5
Å into a nearby hydrogen nucleus they can make it 1.79 Å into Pd or
another lattice element just as well. There are no other nuclei in
the way, so cross sections are not even an issue. Heavier atoms are
not all that much bigger than light ones because atomic radius does
not grow much with atomic number, e.g. radii in angstroms: Pd 1.79,
Au 1.79, Ni 1.62, Li 2.05, K 2.77, Al 1.82, Cu 1.57, Pb 1.81. If
fusion is occurring at a rate sufficient to account for excess heat
then NA should occur at a huge rate also, one that could not possibly
be missed.
Heavy LENR is known to occur, has been observed, and thus requires
just as much explanation as other CF results. The lack of high
energy radiation signatures for both CF and heavy transmutation LENR,
both of which are known to occur both very close to and below the
surface, requires an explanation. The unusual branching ratios
observed require an explanation. The presence of ultra-slow neutrons
in the lattice provides no explanation for these things.
Gammas from NA should be readily observed from heavy element
transmutation if it is due to neutrons. The presence of hypothesized
high mass electrons on a cathode surface, near surface hydrogen
fusion reactions, were suggested to absorb fusion gammas in less than
a nanometer. This explanation can not account for gamma absorption
near heavy elements. NA gammas should be readily detectable.
I think the presence of a free electron in the nucleus at the time of
fusion is the logical explanation of all these things, how the
Coulomb barrier is breached, why high energy particles and gammas are
not seen from hydrogen fusion reactions, why the branching ratios are
so skewed, and why almost no signature, including heat, is seen
corresponding to nuclear mass changes from heavy lattice element
transmutation. How this is proposed to happen is described in "Cold
Fusion Nuclear Reactions" at:
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/CFnuclearReactions.pdf
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
