In reply to Edmund Storms's message of Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:38:22 -0600: Hi, [snip] >I'm making no assumption. I'm simply applying conservation of energy. >If instead of the D= n +P reaction, you propose the normal hot fusion >reaction, then of course the situation changes. When two D come >together with enough energy, the nuclei combine and then explodes into >tritium + p and He3 + n. This is the normal hot fusion reaction that >generates energy. That is not a neutron stripping reaction.
Actually, the "hot" fusion reaction you propose here probably never happens in reality, except perhaps in particle accelerators. Far more likely is that all real life fusion reactions are stripping reactions, i.e. D + D => T + p (where a neutron migrates from one D nucleus to the other leaving a proton behind), or D + D => He3 + n (where a proton migrates to the other D, leaving a neutron behind). Perhaps coincidentally, the concept of nuclear shielding of the ZPF that I mentioned previously, may help to explain this. As two nuclei get closer together, they start to shield one another. The shielding from a large nucleus would be greater than that from a small nucleus. When a D approaches another nucleus, the neutron is shielded on one side by a large nucleus, and on the other side by a mere proton, so at some approach distance, the shielding from the larger nucleus will exceed that from the proton, and the neutron will pushed toward the larger nucleus. The proton would too, but is repelled by the electric charge on the larger nucleus, hence gets pushed away. [snip] >> That is what you seem to be missing in all of this. It is not hot >> fusion but CoE does apply. In the O-P reaction, the Coulomb barrier >> is overcome when two deuterons approach each other with the neutron >> end of each facing the other i.e. being geometrically ahead of the >> proton end. The 1.7 MeV barrier is effectively lowered to about 10 >> keV. Actually the "barrier" has nothing to do with the binding energy of the D nucleus. It is purely electrostatic repulsion, hence the use of "1.7 MeV barrier" is a result of confusion across posts. [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
