Appropriate for the Holiday season perhaps, is the notion of previously unrecognized halo nuclei in LENR.
"Halo nuclei, stepping stones across the drip-lines" is the title of a paper of interest. It would be of far more interest if the heavier nickel isotopes were known to become diffuse like halo nuclei, on occasion. If so, the probability of neutron tunneling to an approaching proton (neutron exchange) would be easier to explain, having a lower threshold than real fusion of several orders of magnitude. The strong force of an approaching proton would actually exceed that of the host nucleus on a halo neutron, if one were out there - at perhaps 7 fm, or 10 times further out than normal in a compact nucleus. This is actually a known distance where one can find the limit of some known halos like fluorine-17 (the stray nucleon is a proton in that case). Thus a modestly fast proton, but one which could never breach the normal Coulomb barrier of nickel, could get close enough to a halo nucleon, if one existed, in order that for kind of nuclear activity (tunneling) happens. No nickel isotopes are known to be in this halo category (I should make that clear), but could they have gone undetected? "Halo Nuclei," Scientific American, 1995 answers some questions about the lifetime. In fact, most of these oddities are transitory, existing for milliseconds. The exact reason they go into a big blur and then back again is not known. However, over two-thirds of natural nickel is the isotope Ni-58. Ni-64 is the most "neutron heavy" of all stable metals in the periodic table. Thus, Ni-64 SHOULD be a halo nuclei, based on that excess neutron factor. The disproportion is actually greater than in known halo isotopes. Otherwise this scenario would not be worth mentioning. But since halo nuclei only live for a few milliseconds and are fragile - and only ~1-2 percent nickel is heavy, and the phenomenon could have gone undiscovered in nickel, it were in the category with a more fleeting existence (microseconds). IOW, there could exist Ni isotopes with halo excursions of shorter lifetime which are not presently recognized. In fact, LENR could BE THE EVIDENCE of temporary halo, at least in nickel. In summary, the 6 extra neutrons (over the most abundant isotope) make the nucleus of Ni-64 more than 10% more massive than the majority isotope. This is the largest percentage excess in the periodic table for metals. Halo or not, there could be an increased probability of some of these neutrons drifting to the edge of strong-force influence on occasion - especially under the stress of any charge incursion into the "Coulomb well"... electron or proton. Jones
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
