At 02:44 PM 7/11/2012, pagnu...@htdconnect.com wrote:
Could this be an indication of the onset of ballistic conduction in some micro-/nano-channels?
I first want to know what "this" is before going much into possible explanations!
The proposed explanation here seems overly complex to me, though. I'd prefer to look at what is close to what is already known, unless and until those ideas are exhausted. There are explanations that are fairly obvious as possibilities:
1. Local substantial heating, which could be due to LENR or to some other heat-generating effect. The key would be that the heating need only affect, initially, the interface layer, which is where the bulk of the cell resistance lives. It is where the electrochemical work is being done. This local heating only would show up with delay and with lesser temperature rise in the bulk electrolyte, where cell temperature is being measured.
2. Ionization, again in the interface layer, due to charged particle radiation. There are already indications that such radiation exists. If this is the case, it is of major interest because it would be a radiation effect, directly proportional to the nuclear reaction rate, providing an immediate "tell" for it.
Even the local heating theory is of great interest, because it seems to be the first sign that appears of substantial heating. It's sudden, which makes chemical explanations more difficult, though not impossible.
Both mechanisms could be operating, and any quantitative analysis should consider both.
If we were looking only at this effect, we'd need to include non-nuclear explanations for the heat. In any given experiment, there can be non-nuclear origin for excess heat, but in some of this work, helium measurement has shown that the calorimetry is at least approximately correct, and that the origin of the excess heat is nuclear, i.e., helium is the ash. We do not need to keep reinventing the wheel just because some people don't know how to put together an axle with spokes or wheels that will work and not break.
