Resend: anyone else having trouble with lost mail? In an earlier exchange between Harry Veeder and Fran Roarty on QM tunneling :
HV: The concept of quantum mechanical tunneling suggests that a particle can, with a certain probability, bore its way through a Coulomb barrier. Suppose, instead, the probability is indicative of a fluctuating Coulomb field in which portals momentarily open and close. JB: Did anyone notice how similar this description is to the technology of semiconductors, where an electron tunnels across a bandgap (barrier)? As fate would have it, I stumbled across this old paper which seems to tie many of the issues of a fluctuating Coulomb barrier into what could be the common denominator of the Rossi/ Reifenschweiler effects. The Coulomb fluctuations are not random and can be enhanced physically without a "gate" or more precisely - with a gate equivalent in the form of crystalline phase change. Increased probability could be tied directly to temperature stability across such a gate. http://www-leland.stanford.edu/group/MarcusLab/papers/FolkPRL.pdf This paper relates to quantum dots (which research, unlike LENR, gets plenty of funding). This R&D is important for LENR in that it shows a strong dependence of the "correlation field" to temperature. A correlation-field is a probability-field. It also leads to the implication that the elevated temperature is required because of an underlying structural change. Here is a paper relevant to this idea of phase-change at elevated temperature, also from semiconductor R&D: http://joam.inoe.ro/arhiva/pdf8_6/6Steimer.pdf In fact, if you carefully read the paper below in the context of the papers above, what Otto Reifenschweiler is saying is that the nuclear decay alteration effect is TEMPERATURE DEPENDENT in a crystalline material, and NOT a factor of loading. The loading is modest by LENR standards(.5:1). He does not mention phase-change exactly (as opposed to crystallinity) and that is why you need to read this paper in the context of the Folk paper. http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/Reifenschwcoldfusion.pdf FR: Your description also supports Naudts' proposal of relativistic hydrogen - this isn't hydrogen at near C spatial velocity but equivalent acceleration caused by DIRECT manipulation of vacuum energy density using suppression. JB: OK, this effect of 'equivalent acceleration' and cavity QED in general, is also a factor that blends into the mix. If we can tie all of this together into a "package" which is capable of explaining the results of Rossi and Reifenschweiler as differing aspects of the same kind of ion (proton) band gap phenomenon, then it would also incorporate elevated temperature dependence with phase-change and cavity QED - and more. IOW, we have these factors which are linked together: 1) A variable Coulomb barrier to tunneling, normally conservative 2) Tunneling flux of +ions which seems to relate to increased probability in a reactor of the proper design 3) A strong correlation to temperature which is elevated slightly but not greatly 4) Hydrogen trapped in Casimir Cavities as a dense form 5) Phase change in the matrix which corresponds to the elevated temperature value as an alternative type of bandgap 6) A similar effect to electron tunneling, where protons tunnel due to QM factors with ZPE intrusion as an acceleration effect CAVEAT - it would be a mistake to limit or even link the QM tunneling in LENR to nuclear reactions alone. Some nuclear tunneling undoubtedly happens as a side effect, but massive energy is available without it. Tunneling can explain the transmutation of nickel into copper, but that ignores the problem of residual radioactivity which would be involved if 'nuclear' were to be the sole source of excess energy (as opposed to ZPE). Tunneling across any (bandgap) barrier is related strongly to anomalous semiconductor-like effects - and Thomas Valone is noted for often referring to this in his presentations as being absolute proof of ZPE. Bandgaps refer to electrons in this case, but a similar situation is possible for positive ions in a dielectric. That is how semiconductor science can correlate directly to LENR. Zirconia is one such semiconductor, which is also a proton conductor with a pronounced phase-change in the temperature range which appears to be the Rossi "trigger" temperature. Perhaps that is the smoking gun. There is clearly negative entropy (extropy) involved when a proton tunnels across what would be the bandgap equivalent Coulomb barrier, if and when it gathers the velocity necessary from what Fran calls "suppression" which is a kind of time distortion. In the end, this creates a spatial zone which is depleted in ZPE and is self-limiting. Compared to electron tunneling, which is not usually gainful, this kind of ion phase-change tunneling can be described as giving almost two thousand times more mass/energy in for the same amount of Coulomb barrier manipulation. Does that push it into the range of net gain? Once again, the answer is no, it does not unless there is a method of energy compensation - which is the secondary nuclear reaction with which to "balances the books". That is how my previous post on zirconium-96 enters into the picture. This isotope is the "ZPE book balancer". Jones
