At 07:47 PM 5/10/2011, Wm. Scott Smith wrote:
If we are confining protons in the metal lattice where they encounter thermal electrons which move relatively slow, and it these thermal electrons combine with the proton, then voila!
Well, if it were that easy to make neutrons, we'd be making them all the time. What happens when a slow proton meets a slow electron, assuming they are free, is that a hydrogen atom is formed, not a neutron. The electron cannot reach the nucleus (a proton in this case), it stays at a distance, and the "ground state" is the minimum Bohr "orbit." It takes energy -- a lot of energy, apparently, -- to bring an electron and a proton into close proximity.
Perhaps we then have slow neutrons drifting through the Coulomb Barrier.
Sure, but this would cause many effects, it's called neutron activation and it will make lots of things radioactive. Getting the slow neutrons is the problem. Widom-Larsen theory proposes that "heavy electrons" form on the surface of certain metal hydrides, I think, and that these are captured and result in a series of absorptions. If find it a tad Rube-Goldberg for my taste.
