Here’s the best comment...
——————www.mail-archive.com/vortex-l@eskimo.com/msg88136.html-————
Here are a few further musings on this fine paper.
The electron assisted neutron exchange process is interesting for nickel
since the yield is almost 600 keV for each of the two see-saw isotopes. This
is on the high side of what can remain “gammaless”. The downside is that
Ni61 is only 1+% of natural nickel, and it is required for all 3 exothermic
reactions. In practice this would probably limit the lifetime of the
reaction severely without some kind of enrichment.
The downside for Rossi - if this theory is correct, is that he blew it and
has little IP protection ... since essentially, in his filing, Rossi bet the
farm on Ni62 being the active isotope. However, it is unlikely that the
neutron exchange reaction is the only gainful reaction in any experiment, or
even a main reaction - and it could be only contributory. It could be one
of a dozen pathways, any of which will reinforce the probability of others
in a synergetic way.
Here are a few of the most viable hypotheses for gain - well over a dozen of
them. But the most controversial suggestion is that these are not mutually
exclusive, and that several or even ALL of them could be at work
simultaneously and contributory in a given experiment which has the
necessary components. There is not even a good candidate for “most likely”
IMHO.
* The original theory of P&F applicable to palladium and deuterium,
involving fusion to helium or tritium caused by coherent electron effects
(screening)
* Coulomb mediated reactions in general, including the deflation
fusion model of Horace Heffner.
* The “hydrino” (fractional hydrogen) mechanism of Randell Mills.
* The dense hydrogen or dense deuterium model, differentiated by Miley
and others as inverted Rydberg hydrogen or a DDL (deep Dirac layer).
* The Storms mechanism for NiH, which envisions protons fusing to
deuterium via screening in a specific kind of NAE site, evolved from
“fractofusion.
* The NASA effort (US 20110255645) suggests a method for producing
“heavy electrons” as a fusion catalyst (screening).
* The Yeong Kim (Zubarev) proposal of a BEC Bose-Einstein Condensate
* The Takahashi tetrahedral TSC model is similar to the BEC.
* The beta decay/ ultracold neutron mechanism popularized by
Widom-Larsen which is similar to a Focardi/ Rossi/ Brillouin/ NASA
explanation.
* Polariton catalysis in general - which is a theory involving
plasmons, surface phonons and photons. This is more of an “enabler” pathway.
* Casimir dynamics, in general including a dynamical effect. This is
also an “enabler” pathway as are other geometry constraints.
* Accelerated nuclear decay. Some experiments benefit from long-lived
but unstable isotopes like potassium-40.
* RPF or reversible proton fusion, which is based on the strong force,
QCD and a transient state, the diproton, deriving energy from quark or gluon
mass.
* The “nanomagnetism” ideas of Brian Ahern - which is a formative
theory involving magnons and cyclical phase change around the Curie point of
Ni.
* Any combination or permutation of the above - since none of them is
mutually exclusive and most experiments cannot be defined by a single
hypothesis.
There are many more, especially variations and refinements. Pardon me if I
have overlooked your favorite, but this is a running effort and your
favorite may appear on the next list.
On the plus side, it's gotta be easier to sort 61Ni from the rest of the isotopes than to separate out U235.
A neutron is a much bigger percentage of the total mass at AMUs near 60 than at AMUs near 238...
Wow, there are many people working on a lot of LENR related theories! I feel someone will get it, or them, right someday, perhaps soon.