start with the notion that some fraction of the deuterium atoms have donated their electrons to metal's conduction band, and have become bare deuterons. We know that they have some thermal energy, and every now and then two of the deuterons should happen to begin approaching each other. Normally, even discounting the electron shells they usually possess, they cannot get very close to each other, because they electrostatically repel each other.
However, things are far from normal here, because the deuterons are literally floating through "clouds" of "cloudy" electrons in the conduction band of the palladium. At any given moment, especially because the deuterons are able to electrostatically attract electrons, 10 or 100 or 1000 or even more electrons might, thanks to QM, be spending small parts of their time (and cloudiness-of-location) in-between the two deuterons. The net effect is that those electrons collectively shield the deuterons from each other, preventing electrostatic repulsion, exactly as a muon can. Furthermore, since none of those conduction-band electrons are in orbit around either deuteron, the electrons can approach the deuterons arbitrarily closely— we should be able to expect some of those electrons to pass right through the deuterons without, as described in Part Four, "significantly interacting" with their nucleons.
It now seems reasonable that the two deuterons actually can approach each other closely enough for the strong nuclear force to come into play. Please note a significant difference between this simple allowing of the deuterons to randomly meet, compared to a catalyzing muon's effective attraction of one nucleus to another, as described in Part Four. Fusion is practically guaranteed when a muon is involved, but in a metal's conduction band, thermal deuterons can fuse only if they randomly happen to be on a nearly perfect collision course (imperfection is related to their interaction cross-sections). And because deuterons are so tiny, it logically follows that a great many deuterons need to be loaded into the conduction band, before significant quantities of fusions become probable.
If two deuterons can almost meet in a metal's conduction band, then there will be virtual pions zipping across the distance between them. And now, instead of there being a muon for some of the pions to interact with, there may be 10 or 100 or 1000 or even more electrons for the pions to interact with. To properly grasp the full possibilities here, simply recall that a pion can interact with a nucleon in a trillionth of a trillionth of a second. That means if the whole fusion reaction takes place in a trillionth of a second, there is still time for a trillion virtual pions to zip across the distance between them! How many of those pions can kick a different electron, and give it some energy? Every time that happens, less energy is left for the fusion to cause an He-4 nucleus to break apart. Or for a gamma ray to be emitted, either.
The preceding, then, is the hypothetical mechanism that allows the ideal fusion reaction for deuterons to occur inside palladium metal. Can this hypothesis explain any other things? Perhaps. For example, some very recent experiments involving a very thin layer of palladium have been showing signs of less-than-ideal fusion reactions. This could most obviously be a consequence of there being enough electrons in the conduction band to initiate fusion, but not enough (three-dimensionally) to carry away enough energy so that only the ideal reaction occurs. Next, it is the author's understanding that Jupiter and Saturn appear to be somewhat warmer than expected. They are not big enough to create fusion as stars do, but they are 90% hydrogen and do have enough gravitation for some of that hydrogen to be compressed into the "metallic" state. In this case the ordinary protiumhydrogen would be providing a conduction-band "cloud" in which deuterons could float and eventually find mates. Fusions could be happening at a slow rate, despite non-stellar magnitudes of gravitation.
It is traditional to now suggest an experiment to test the hypothesis of conduction-band electrons catalyzing fusion reactions: Construct a small spherical pellet of frozen deuterium molecules. Surround it with a thin shell of frozen hydrogen (ordinary "protium" molecules). Place the pellet in an "Inertial Confinement Fusion" test-device. Blast the pellet with a limited amount of energy from multiple directions. This will cause the shell of the pellet to explode and the body of the pellet to implode. We want a limited implosion only. Specifically, we only want to implode the pellet to the point—and not beyond that point!-where it forms metallic hydrogen. In this case we would have metallic deuterium, of course, complete with a conductionband of electrons. If the hypothesis presented in this essay is correct, there should be some evidence of fusion occurring as that small piece of metal explosively decompresses. Some of those fusions may even be of the ordinary varieties that yield tritium and He-3, due to the small quantity of metal involved.
Some References
- Chubb, S.R. and Chubb, T.A. 1993. "Ion Band State Fusion: Reactions, Power Density, and the Quantum Reality Question," Fusion Technol., 24, p.403.
- Chubb, S.R. and Chubb, T.A. 1994. "The Role of Hydrogen Ion Band States in Cold Fusion," Trans. Fusion Technol., 26, 4T, p.414.
- Chubb, S.R. 2003. "Nuts and Bolts of the Ion Band State Theory," Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Cold Fusion, Cambridge, MA: LENR-CANR.org.
- Fleischmann, M. and Pons, S. 1989. "Electrochemically Induced Nuclear Fusion of Deuterium," Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 261, 2A, 301-308.
- Frisone, F. "Theoretical Study of the Phenomenon of Cold Fusion," at http://www.iscmns.org/ast106/FrisoneStudy.pdf.
- Jackson, J.D. 1957. "Catalysis of Nuclear Reactions Between Hydrogen Isotopes by µ-Mesons," Physical Review, April 15, 106, 300.
- Waber, J.T. and de Llano, M. 1994. "Cold Fusion as Boson Condensation in a Fermi Sea," Trans. Fusion Technol., 26, 4T, p.496.
- Wigner, E. and Huntington, H.B. 1935. "On the Possibility of a Metallic Modification of Hydrogen," J. Chem. Phys., 3, 764-770.
- Yukawa, H. 1935. "On the Interaction of Elementary Particles, I.," Proc. Phys.-Math Soc. Japan, 17, 48.
- In 2000 the author posted a less complete version of this document on the internet, which now can only be found at http://web.archive.org; use WayBack Machine to search for http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Cold_20Nuclear_20Fusion
vnemitz@pinn.net
