Ultra low momentum neutron catalyzed nuclear reactions on metallic hydride surfaces

Abstract

Ultra low momentum neutron catalyzed nuclear reactions in metallic hydride system surfaces are discussed. Weak interaction catalysis initially occurs when neutrons (along with neutrinos) are produced from the protons which capture "heavy" electrons. Surface electron masses are shifted upwards by localized condensed matter electromagnetic fields. Condensed matter quantum electrodynamic processes may also shift the densities of final states allowing an appreciable production of extremely low momentum neutrons which are thereby efficiently absorbed by nearby nuclei. No Coulomb barriers exist for the weak interaction neutron production or other resulting catalytic processes.PACS numbers: 23.20.Nx

Search for neutron flux generation in a plasma discharge electrolytic cell

“…Some impressive hints on neutron production in high-voltage atmospheric discharges are reported in a recent paper [1]. From the theoretical point of view, there is an open debate on whether inverse-β nuclear transmutations could justify such observations [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Experiments are therefore needed to guide the research in the field, thus providing a sound basis for understanding the underlying physics involved in LENR phenomena.…”

Electron mass shift in nonthermal systems

“…Electromagnetic field fluctuations in the vicinity of a metal surface have been studied previously [18], and significant near-surface enhancements are reported [19]. However, the mass shift estimate reported in [13] seems to be larger than what we would expect, so in this section we examine the model used.…”

“…In the formulation of Widom and Larsen [13], the appearance of the full electric field operator in their mass shift formula is what makes their gauge invariant formulation different from the Coulomb gauge approach under discussion here. Since the vector potential is related to the transverse electric field operator, only the transverse electric field fluctuations would contribute to the mass shift.…”

Neutron production rates by inverse-beta decay in fully ionized plasmas

“…A calculation along these lines has been presented in Ref. [3] for the case of an electron bound to a proton, superseding the order-ofmagnitude estimate presented in [1].…”

“…a reference value, β = 20 was estimated in [1]. It is not clear at all if such spectacularly large values of β can be obtained in metallic hydrides and under which conditions.…”