Quantum tunneling in gap discrete breathers

Abstract

In many-body nonlinear systems, a special kind of lattice vibrations, namely, discrete breathers (DBs) can be excited either thermally or by external triggering, in which the amplitude of atomic oscillations greatly exceeds that of harmonic oscillations (phonons). Coherency and persistence of large atomic oscillations in DBs may have drastic effect on quantum tunneling due to correlation effects discovered by Schrödinger and Robertson in 1930 and applied to the tunneling problem by Dodonov et al (1980) and Vysotskii et al (2010). In the present paper, it is argued that DBs present the most natural and efficient way to produce correlation effects due to time-periodic modulation of the potential well (or the Coulomb barrier) width and hence to act as breather 'nano-colliders' (BNC) triggering low energy nuclear reactions (LENR) in solids. In particular, due to the large mass difference between H / D and the metal atoms, there is a gap in phonon spectrum of metal-hydride / deuteride crystals, in which so called 'gap DBs' arise in the H / D sub-lattice resulting in time-periodic modulation of spacing between adjacent H / D and metal atoms. Tunneling probability for deuterium fusion in 'gap DBs' is shown to increase drastically with increasing number of oscillations resulting in the observed LENR rate under heavy water electrolysis.

Quantum dynamics of wave packets in a non-stationary parabolic potential and the Kramers escape rate theory

“…imbedded in a crystal lattice of more heavy atoms. A characteristic example is hydrogen or deuterium atoms in metal hydrides/deuterides, such as NiH or PdD, in the vicinity of gap breathers -a subclass of LAV arising in a regular lattice [15]. The large mass difference between H or D and the metal atoms provides a gap in phonon spectrum, in which gap breathers can be excited either by thermal fluctuations at elevated temperatures or by external driving such as irradiation at low temperatures [16].…”

“…The parametric driving 0 2  considered above requires rather special conditions similar to those in gap breathers in diatomic crystals [15], while in many other systems [7], e.g. in metals [8][9][10], oscillations of atoms in a discrete breather have different amplitudes but the same frequency.…”

Radiation-induced catalysis of low energy nuclear reactions in solids

“…Corrections to the cross section of the fusion due to the screening effect of atomic electrons result in the so-called "screening potential", which is far too weak to explain LENR observed at temperatures below the melting point of solids [Dubinko, 2014[Dubinko, , 2015. In addition to the electron screening, a substantial suppression of the Coulomb barrier may be possible at the expense of lattice vibrations, as was proposed by Schwinger [1990aSchwinger [ , 1990b, who was the first to point out at the bridge between the lattice vibrations and nuclear fusion.…”

“…LAV can be excited thermally or by external driving, resulting in a catalytic acceleration of chemical reaction rates in their vicinity. What is more, recently, LAV have been proposed as catalysts of nuclear D-D fusion in palladium deuteride under heavy water electrolysis [Dubinko, 2014[Dubinko, , 2015Dubinko and Laptev, 2016]. Electric current producing the flux of D-ions through the Pd surface was shown to be a driver of the LAV generation under electrolysis conditions, which triggered the D-D fusion.…”

“…On the other hand, the main triggering method of low energy nuclear reactions (LENR) in hydrogenated metals according to the method by Rossi [2015] and its successful replications [e.g., [Parkhomov, 2015;Mills, 2015]) consists in the heating of the fuel mixture up to temperatures typically exceeding 1000 • C. According to the LENR model [Dubinko, 2014[Dubinko, , 2015Dubinko and Laptev, 2016], heating is needed to increase the concentration of LAV in the lattice, which act as catalysts of LENR due to the time-periodic modulation of the potential wells where protons or deuterons are trapped. The parametric modulation increases the zero-point oscillation amplitude, which drastically enhances the fusion rate, according to the modified model [Dubinko and Laptev, 2016] originally proposed by a Nobel Laureate Julian Schwinger [Schwinger, 1990a[Schwinger, , 1990b.…”