Fran, Let me clarify a couple of things. Because "plain text" does not show superscripts in vortex postings - when you see "2He," which should have the 2 as a superscript - that refers to the transient helium-2 nucleus, composed of two protons and no neutrons. It has slight negative binding energy (due to anti-aligned spins) - which is temporarily overwhelmed by strong force attraction - thereby making the fused helium isotope real, but instantly reversible - triggering QCD color change.
The P+P reversible fusion reaction, on earth, probably requires Casimir
cavity confinement or equivalent, as a substitute for a strong gravity field
(in the solar model). This is the most common nuclear reaction in the
universe by far - the "reversible fusion of two protons" and it has always
been assumed to have no gain. Two protons can never fuse directly to
deuterium - therefore the secondary reaction (beta decay) always must happen
in fused 2He as a first step - to give the occasional deuteron - on which
most of the heat of the sun depends, eventually. This process is the
"throttle" that keeps the sun from burning up its mass rapidly. But there
could be more to the thermal story, if there is asymmetry.
As a result of the evolution of nanomagnetic theory by Ahern, myself and
others - the focus has moved beyond suggesting that "ZPE" is the proximate
energy source, but -yes- ZPE may be involved at a deeper level. The zero
point field was always a kind of "page-marker" awaiting more careful
analysis. If the hypothesis of PP reversible fusion holds, we may find that
the strong force itself depends on ZPE, in another basic context - such as
hydrogen mass regauging (thanks to Mark) .
Whether or not a new kind of Bussard Ramjet (a Bastard Ramjet, so to speak
:-) is possible, based on "reversible diproton nuclear fusion asymmetry
without beta decay" - is just a guess - but it seems likely. In any event
the fusion reaction is extremely short lived, immediately reverting to two
protons. The reaction happens incessantly on the sun (or in the Casimir
cavity) so much so that it is hard to distinguish from elastic collision -
except for the few attoseconds of "stickiness" which invokes QCD. Elastic
collisions are no gain.
In the Nickel-hydrogen nanomagnetic theory - neither helium-3, helium-4 nor
deuterium are seen to any substantial extent. This is where it departs from
Storms and other who are suggesting deuterium and helium. We have a more
tolerable leap of faith for explaining the gain in Ni-H, which does not
depend on the extraordinary rarity of beta-decay - and is a strong force
modality, not a weak force modality like W&L, (which is not yet proved, but
is falsifiable). This quasi-fusion reaction will be slightly asymmetric due
to QCD color change following the transient fusion event. In both cases (on
the Sun, or in the cavity on earth) the slight energy gain amounts to a tiny
fraction of an eV, in the range of the Dirac h-bar equivalent. Small gain,
yes but there can be lots of them sequentially, when protons are in
confinement with relativistic virtual photons.
QCD is the quantum theory which best models the strong force - and the color
changes in QCD are generally not symmetric - thus opening the door for
bosonic transfer of a bit of proton average mass, via magnons. Magnons are
important in a confining structure which is ferromagnetic, since the
transfer boson will supply the excess heat via magnetic induction of any
ferromagnetic atom nearby.
It is no accident that recently, strong apparent thermal gain with no gammas
has been seen with cobalt and hydrogen.
Nickel and cobalt are active, but iron is apparently not as active as the
other two ferromagnetic candidates. The reason why is worth knowing, and it
may related to what is called "hydrogen embrittlement". Strong, or at least
ductile, cavity porosity is required.
From: Roarty, Francis X
... the prerequisite reaction for eventual solar conversion
into 4He [no, not helium-4, we are talking about transient helium-2]
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