Lochon-mediated low-energy nuclear reactions

Abstract

In heavily hydrogenated (deuterated) palladium crystals, the crystallinity is degraded. This non-uniformity results in phonon modes that are localized and of higher frequency than for unloaded lattices. These modes create dynamic electrostatic fields that couple ' strongly with both bound and free electrons and the hydrogen (H and D) sub-lattice. A consequent potential inversion leads to the formation of "lochons" (local-charged bosons-electron pairs in the singlet state) and results in H^- or D^- ions in the sub-lattice. The nuclear-Coulomb repulsion between colliding D⁺ D^- ion pairs in the sub-lattice is considerably reduced by the resultant "strong screening'* and "lochon-drag" effects. Furthermore, work is done, by the bound lochon in a D^- ion attracting an adjacent D⁺ ion. This results in reductions of the deuteron's electron-orbital radii, as the ion pair approaches; of the mass deficit between the deuteron pair and a ⁴He atom (or a proton pair and a ²He/²H atom); and finally of the Coulomb repulsion between nuclear protons in a helium nucleus. Thus, the end product of such a deuteron-pair fusion is an excited-helium nucleus (⁴He*) with lower energy relative to that resulting from energetic deuteron collisions. This reduced energy of the excited nucleus may be lower than its new fragmentation levels. The effect of lochon mediation, to alter the nuclear potential-well and fragmentation energies, allows decay to the ⁴He ground states to be free of particulate radiation. This decay process, of "neutral" ²He (from p+p) or ⁴He excited nuclei, is also a basis for observed transmutation.