Status of cold fusion (2010)

Abstract

The phenomenon called cold fusion has been studied for the last 21 years since its discovery by Profs. Fleischmann and Pons in 1989. The discovery was met with considerable skepticism, but supporting evidence has accumulated, plausible theories have been suggested, and research is continuing in at least eight countries. This paper provides a brief overview of the major discoveries and some of the attempts at an explanation. The evidence supports the claim that a nuclear reaction between deuterons to produce helium can occur in special materials without application of high energy. This reaction is found to produce clean energy at potentially useful levels without the harmful byproducts normally associated with a nuclear process. Various requirements of a model are examined.

Forbidden nuclear reactions

“…Furthermore, in this case in ϕ 23 (R, r) an approximate form ϕ Cb,a (r) = e ik·r f 23 (|k|)/ √ V of the (unscreened) Coulomb solution ϕ Cb (r) may be used. Here f 23 (|k|) is the appropriate factor given by (7) corresponding to particles 2 and 3. Thus ϕ 23 (R, r,nucl) sc = f 23 (|k|)e iKR e ikr /V is used in the range of the nucleus and in the calculation of the nuclear matrix-element.…”

The Present Status of Cold Fusion and its Expected Influence on Science and Technology

“…Nevertheless, active study of the process continued and is on going in at least eight countries by a growing number of scientists because they continue to observe the behavior. This work has now resulted in thousands of published papers, a collection of books 1 describing the science [3][4][5][6] and history [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] many reviews [14][15][16][17][18][19] accessible to popular understanding, including lectures on YouTube 2 . Several websites provide a rich source of information.…”

Superfluidity of Deuterons in Metal-Deuterium Solid Solutionsand Cold Fusion

“…The idea is to use solid solutions of metals and deuterium to initiate the nuclear reaction of d-d-synthesis. There are a rather large number of publications (for example, [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]), in which it is reported on the observation of energy release and releasation of nuclear reaction products in solid solutions of titanium (palladium) and deuterium. Despite a large number of theoretical works (for example, [8,[11][12][13][14][15][16]), there is still no understanding of exactly how the Coulomb barrier between the two deuterons is overcome.…”

“…Despite a large number of theoretical works (for example, [8,[11][12][13][14][15][16]), there is still no understanding of exactly how the Coulomb barrier between the two deuterons is overcome. In the sequel, other ideas of the CF were proposed, but in this paper we will refer to the processes of CF as the reaction (3) Reactions (1) and (2) occur approximately at the same frequency. Reaction (3) occurs very rarely.…”

“…A deuteron, which participates in the collision, is separated from the Bose condensate. The processes of CF occur in solid solutions of titanium and deuterium and palladium and deuterium at a deuterium concentration comparable with the concentration of metal ions [2].…”