> From: Roarty, Francis X Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 6:18 AM > are you implying this reaction can occur without gas loading? If your theory > does require gas atoms what function do you assign them?
Dear Fran, Bob Cook, and vortex-l, My interpretation of the evidence is that the primary gain mechanism is active both when the nickel is in solid phase at lower reactor temperatures, and when it is in liquid phase at high reactor temperatures. The Lugano nickel ash grain displays a high degree of sintering, if not a full liquid state, IMHO. Because of the liquid phase Ni activity, I suspect that bulk gas loading is not required in order for the gainful reaction to occur, so long as sufficient SPP and phonon resonances are possible. Note that enhanced evaporation near the melting point of nickel could create an effective triple-point in the state phase diagram, which may imply a region of stability which supports the persistence of the unique, actively-driven nickel morphology despite it being in a liquid state. The reactor control system may be tuned to avoid exceeding this stable operating point, perhaps even overriding the input control knob presented to the experimenters. It may be a unique aspect of the Pd/D electrolytic process that requires high loading, or perhaps high loading is required less for reactant availability than for a conditioning regime involving morphological changes to the electrode which enable phonon and SPP resonant coupling modes to evolve sufficiently for LENR reactions to take place. Because of the high degree of correspondence between the thermal behaviors of LENR reactions and MIMS reactions, I have been particularly focusing my thoughts on the implications of this unusual polychromatic superradiance that has been observed with MIMS, particularly the abundant soft x-rays in the 75-100 eV range that are rapidly emitted. As a working model, I am picturing available monoatomic nickel atoms being in a near-surface vapor phase, induced by SPP and/or phonon-enhanced evaporation or sublimation that occurs at rates outside the ordinary equilibrium vapor pressure regime. I presume the lithium is also in a monoatomic gas phase resulting from the reactor temperature. Both of these reactants are then coupled to the surface SPP and phonon activity via electrostatics/EM, at similar distances above the surface. Although a three-body collision of high-speed gas particles is inherently rather improbable, I suspect that EM field alignments are providing a greatly-enhanced probability of Li-Ni-Li collisions. The heavy nickel atoms will tend to find stationary nodes, while the light lithium atoms are more likely to be at high velocities driven by plasmon and phonon acceleration. The simultaneous arrival of two lithium atoms at a nickel target atom from opposite directions has an enhanced probability of occurring because of the coherence of the acceleration applied by the system to the lithium. I believe that a continuous neutron-exchange reaction cycle is taking place between lithium and nickel, which includes the following reactions: Li-7 + Ni-58 + Li-7 + stimulus -> 2Li-6 + Ni-58 + sr-gammas Li-7 + Ni-60 + Li-7 + stimulus -> 2Li-6 + Ni-62 + sr-gammas Li-7 + Ni-61 + Li-6 + stimulus -> 2Li-6 + Ni-62 + sr-gammas Li-7 + Ni-62 + Li-7 + stimulus -> 2Li-7 + Ni-62 + enhanced sr-gammas (no neutrons exchanged) Li-6 + Ni-62 + Li-6 + enhanced stimulus -> 2Li-7 + Ni-60 + sr-gammas Li-6 + Ni-64 + Li-6 + stimulus -> 2Li-7 + Ni-62 + sr-gammas Li-6 + Ni-60 + Li-6 + stimulus -> 2Li-7 + Ni-58 + sr-gammas There is a decay mode inherent to the reaction cycle which apparently requires periodic SPP pumping to maintain equilibrium, which is the key control parameter which prevents runaway. The physical design of the reactor system must also maintain operating conditions which enable this inherent decay mode, or else runaway will result. What I find remarkable is how long the reactor can operate in self-sustain mode after the control is stopped, which implies a very small decay coefficient in the reaction feedback loop. There are two potential sources for this small decay bias that I am currently considering. The first possible direction to catch my eye is the small discrepancy in binding energies between Li-6 and Li-7, which could create a bias in the cycle which drives it into shutdown without external stimulus. The other possibility is an asymmetry in the superradiant output for various stages of the reaction cycle. The answer will be difficult to evaluate with the current state of experimentally-derived data from MIMS phenomena. As for the neutron-exchange reaction, I am currently investigating the photodisintegration process, in which neutrons are released via photon stimulation. Observed instances of this phenomena have been the result of much higher energy photon sources than we see in this system, however, I suspect that the poorly-studied superradiance phenomena which I believe is occurring is stimulating nuclear resonant modes sufficiently to permit previously-unobserved levels of individual photon energy to initiate photodisintegration-based neutron transfer. I am spending a lot of time now musing on the nature of the pristine transmutation products, entirely absent of unstable products, and only including spin-0 isotopes of the nickel. Unfortunately, I need to do a lot more studying before I have learned enough about quantum nuclear processes to be able to articulate my thoughts in terms sufficiently meaningful to interested readers. However, I will note that the unusual, highly-stimulated nuclear resonance conditions that are presumed to arise from the MIMS reaction seems to always produce the "best" result, possibly because it is able to fluctuate rapidly between possible outcomes until the most stable result is settled upon. I really don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to quantum anything, however, so please interpret this statement generally and gently. One new piece of evidence which I have concluded from analysis of the ash is that the large iron grain observed in the fuel is Electrical Steel, aka Silicon Steel, such as is commonly used in transformer core laminations. It is known for high permittivity. The morphology of the grain reveals a well-defined plane on the top, angling towards the bottom-left, which appears to me to be an original surface of the steel lamination stock. On the right side of the grain are two significant "chunks" missing from the grain, which are evident in two sets of bright lines at approximately right angles to each other. I believe these missing chunks are created by the abrasive grain particles of a grinding wheel used to fabricate the fuel iron grains from electrical steel flat stock. Note that the crystal fractures apparent in the grain align with these chunks, suggesting they are the result of yield fractures during the grinding operation. I hope this stimulates productive thinking! Best wishes, -Bob Ellefson
