On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 9:23 AM, David Roberson <dlrober...@aol.com> wrote:
Your graphs clearly demonstrate the double balanced mix of a carrier > signal and a modulation signal. I have been working with radio design for > many years and this is a classical view. Even though the magnitude of the > total waveform goes to zero based upon the modulation frequency, the actual > signal consists of two individual sine waves. If you place a narrow band > filter centered on one of the components you will observe a steady sine > wave with a ripple on its magnitude proportional to the amount of leakage > afforded the filtered out signal. I understand your point that strange > things happen when non linear activity is present and I have seen some > amazing behavior. > In your experience, would the interaction of such a waveform with the environment be more like two separate, superposed waves, or like a new, hybrid wave? Is there some kind of emergent behavior, or is heterodyning not all that interesting in this context? Thanks for pointing out that nickel is opaque to a band of frequencies that > begins at zero hertz and continues until x-rays are passed at somewhere > beyond 50 keV. I have always assumed that this is due to the reflection of > the energy by free electrons within the metal but have never looked into > the process in any detail. > By "opaque" I am thinking in relative terms. I recall doing a calculation in which the intensity of a beam at 50 keV through 1cm of nickel went almost to zero, although I might have done the calculation wrong. It's at this energy that one sees a discontinuity in the linear attenuation coefficient in the following table, where it is significantly greater than coefficients for higher energies: http://www.astm.org/BOOKSTORE/DS68/pg53.pdf NIST provides a tool to calculate the intensity of electromagnetic radiation passing through different materials at different wavelengths if you're interested: http://www.nist.gov/pml/data/xcom/index.cfm http://imgur.com/fow0e > My concern at the moment is for the high energy photons at the binding > energy region, in this case near 8 MeV. I worry that once released, these > will be nearly impossible to attenuate. I know of the W&L theory that > their proposed heavy electrons will accomplish the job, but there has never > been any proof that this is true. Also, how could this process influence > virtually all of the gamma rays in every direction unless the nickel is > literally crawling with heavy electrons? The extremely tiny wavelength of > these high energy gammas would not suggest to me that they impact many > nearby electrons if any at all. Couple this with the fact that no one has > proven that the heavy electrons exist and you can see why I am skeptical. > I'm inclined to go along with those who don't like the "heavy electron patches" for now. I figure one has three cards, each of which will buy you magic or a miracle of some kind, and I don't want to spend mine on heavy electrons intercepting gammas. My current thinking on the attenuation problem is that the cavity becomes "viscous" to the gammas due to the x-rays, and as a result the gammas are disrupted right at the source. Perhaps you could get 100 percent suppression if you require that the emission of gammas occur if and only if there are sufficient x-rays present, and that this occur away from the ends of the cavity. I like the concept of an x-ray laser and expect that one day it might be > demonstrated. Someone might already know of such a device, and it would be > interesting for them to tell us of its nature. > I believe x-ray lasers have already been created; if I remember correctly, Peter Hagelstein worked on them at one point. I am not sure whether they have been made at the scales that we have been discussing. If not, I think there are efforts underway. These slides go into some of the related effects at small scales: http://www.aps.anl.gov/video/APS_Colloquium/2006/030106/030106.pdf Have you calculated the number of coherent x-rays at the 50 keV energy > level needed to impart upon a proton the coulomb barrier energy? According > to calculations that I have seen we need to obtain somewhere within the > ballpark of 5 MeV of energy to breech that barrier. This appears like an > interesting path to explore. I like the concept of x-rays trapped within a > slot cavity. In radio terms I wonder what Q is associated with this > process? This is another way of asking for information about the rate at > which energy escapes your trap. > In the slides above, Q values of greater than 2000 are mentioned. The cavities were optical cavities but were not necessarily lasers. I am most interested in the mere presence and role of optical cavities in some form, but if there is lasing as well, all the better. I wondered about whether the cavities needed to be straight and symmetric in order to work, and I found some abstracts on "chaotic" scattering in deformed cavities that seemed to involve high Q values as well. About calculations of the energies required -- this is something I need to look into more. Are you visualizing a system where a number of trapped x-rays continue to > apply pressure against a proton also trapped within the slot thereby > forcing it into the hands of a nearby nickel nucleus? This might actually > apply ramped up pressure as more x-rays become trapped with time. I suspect > that the vort members that have a strong background in chemistry would > consider it unlikely that the crystal structure could withstand this > magnitude of pressure. It is not my call. > I'm imagining one of two situations, or possibly a combination of both: 1. X-rays resonating with the cavity mode, perhaps for an extended period of time (in relative terms). They ionize hydrogen and increase the temperature in the cavity to the point that conventional fusion goes from a negligible probability to a significant one. But the rate would be the minimum sufficient to sustain the reaction by releasing energy into the cavity, which ultimately thermalizes to infrared in the bulk of the substrate. The ambient infrared would be in some kind of equilibrium with the the cavities, and the cavities, acting like tuning forks, would translate the infrared pouring back in from the bulk into shorter wavelengths. 2. X-rays and EUVs ionize the walls of the cavity and cause the ejected electrons to enter the cavity. Perhaps the negative electrostatic charge from free electrons becomes large through some process, and the ionized hydrogen are drawn to the electrons and hence closer to one another. This is similar to what happens in a Polywell reactor. The final products would be helium and infrared radiation. I do not imagine the nickel + p reaction would be more than a secondary one. Andrea Rossi may have found a catalyst in an unstable isotope of nickel that will easily fuse, releasing a burst of energy that will accelerate the process. But I'm given to understand that the largest products by far are helium and heat and that transmutations are not sufficient to account for the power that is generated. About the x-rays exerting pressure on the walls of the cavity, I imagine this would be equivalent to that exerted upon the ionized hydrogen. It seems like the Mossbauer effect might be relevant here, such that the recoil is absorbed by the crystal as a whole rather than individual nickel atoms. For an individual atom the force might be high, but if amortized over the entire lattice, there might not be too much disruption. In certain cases, however, you would expect to see the temperature and pressure to go beyond a certain threshold, and this seems to be what is sometimes observed in images of melted regions on the surface. Eric
