At 11:05 PM 5/10/2011, Mark Iverson wrote:
Abd wrote:
"Well, if it were that easy to make neutrons, we'd be making them
all the time."
Perhaps not... Spectroscopy is everywhere and its only specific
wavelengths of light that are
absorbed/emitted. What if the conditions in the lattice are such
that there's a harmonic
relationship between the electrons and the protons which enhances
the probabilities of the two
'fusing' into a neutron...
What if, schmatt if! If neutrons are being formed, we'd expect lots
of effects that are not observed. This is one of the huge problems
with Widom-Larsen, to my mind. It builds on the transmutation
results, as if they were the whole banana, when, in fact, what we
know is happening is deuterium --> helium, with very little else
involved and observable, reported transmutations being at far lower levels.
Slow-neutrons -> neutron activation -> gammas of known energies.
Widom-Larsen waves a magic wand: (the "heavy electrons" -- an
unconfirmed effect, as to anything like this -- screen out the gammas
with amazing efficiency, they don't even leak around the edges.
That's another unconfirmed effect, albeit one that I think they just
patented. Does it work? Now that the patent is issued, perhaps Larsen
won't be able to hide his experimental results behind "commercial
secret," as he did when asked about this, by Garwin, I think.
I find it much simpler, if I'm going to posit a "what if," to think,
"What if the conditions in the lattice are such that there is a ...
relationship between deuterons (two or more) which enhances the
probabilities of them fusing into helium? (and it works much better
if it is four deuterons, at least, the lack of radiation *might* be
explained). "
Positing this with neutrons, as stated by Mark, is postulating
something more complicated, not really making progress in
understanding. I.e., one mystery is simply replaced with another.
As to what's really happening, the bottom line is, really, if we are
honest, "We don't know."
Except I know, it's reasonable to say, that there is fusion, from the
confirmed heat ratio to helium in PdD experiments. Is this the same
mechanism, in principle, as in the Ni-H system (which wouldn't
produce helium, probably)?
"We don't know." Occam's Razor suggests, "Probably," but OR is never
a proof of anything, it's merely a suggested approach.
