冷核聚变是指常温、常压下发生的核聚变反应的假说。冷核聚变不同于恒星内部、热核武器和实验性聚变反应堆中高温、高压的“热”核聚变，也不包括常温的μ子催化聚变（1950年代就已证实，但不具实用价值）。目前，并不存在被主流物理学共识接受的冷核聚变理论或现象。

1989年，电化学家和报告称其实验装置出现反常放热（“余热”）现象，声称其数量级无法依靠化学反应解释，唯一的可能性是核反应。两人在论文中进一步报告称，实验检测到少量中子、氚等核反应副产物。此外，该实验较简单，仅是一个发生于钯电极表面的的重水电解实验，可以使用小型电解装置在实验室桌面上进行。本研究受到了媒体的广泛关注，引发了人们对低成本清洁能源的遐想。

但是，该实验未能被其他科学家成功复现。起初大量实验者报告复现失败，少数“成功”的实验者也撤回主张；随后，人们指出最初实验中有许多可导致实验错误的漏洞；最终，人们意识到两人根本没有检测到所谓的核反应副产物。清洁能源的希望也因此破灭。时至1989年末，大多数科学家认为“冷核聚变说”已死。随后，冷核聚变普遍被认为是一种。1989年美国能源部调查报告认为，实验者报告的余热现象并非有用能源的确凿证据，不应向冷核聚变提供研究经费。2004年，美国能源部发布了审评近期研究的第二轮报告，依然没有改变最初的结论。目前，冷核聚变研究很少能发表在经同行审评的期刊中，其研究所受到的审视低于主流科学研究。

少数研究者依然相信冷核聚变存在可能。例如，谷歌公司在2019年资助了一项冷核聚变实验，并在《自然》期刊上发表论文，但该实验未能复现马丁·弗莱施曼和斯坦利·庞斯的实验结果。为避免“冷核聚变”一词的负面联系，该领域研究者将其称为低能量核反應（, LENR）与凝態态核科學（, CMNS），这个边缘科学群体仍在继续开展研究。

歷史
冷核融合為大眾所週知起因於1989年3月「弗萊許曼-龐斯實驗」的爭議性——由科學家馬丁·弗萊許曼（Martin Fleischmann）與史坦利·龐斯（Stanley Pons）所進行。當時有許多科學家努力重複該實驗，卻發現無法再現一樣的結果。人们对冷聚变最大的责难集中在其实验的低重复性和核反应产物不匹配两点上。

2008年，日本大阪大學物理學教授荒田吉明宣稱完成第一次成功冷融合示範。在實驗中，荒田吉明使氘進入一個包含鈀與鋯氧化物之混合物中，在這種稠密的狀態下，來自於不同原子的氘原子核融合產生氦原子核。

2011年，義大利波隆納大學（University of Bologna）物理系的科學家安卓·羅西（Andrea Rossi）與Sergio Focardi宣布已成功利用能源催化劑（Energy Catalyzer ）引發冷核融合反應，但尚未普遍得到其他科學家證實。

参考资料

延伸閱讀

報導與評論 
"Cold Fusion Research" - Energy Research Advisory Board report (November 1989)
Conclusions and recommendations section of the report
U.S. Navy Report Detailing a Decade of Cold Fusion Research "Thermal and Nuclear Aspects of the Pd/D2O System", U.S. Navy TECHNICAL REPORT 1862, February 2002
U.S. DoE 2004 Cold Fusion Review - U.S. Department of Energy review of 15 years of cold fusion experiments
Cold Fusion - An Objective Assessment - by Dr. Edmund Storms, a review of the experimental results (December 2001; 233 references, including 34 studies reporting anomalous energy using the Pons-Fleischmann method)

期刊與書籍 
 Cold Fusion Times - quarterly journal about cold fusion

Websites and repositories 
Britz's cold nuclear fusion bibliography - an overview and review of almost all available publications about cold nuclear fusion
Cold Fusion — 17 Years and Heating Up - directory of cold fusion resources compiled by FreeEnergyNews.com
L. Kowalski's web site - a collection of commentaries on cold fusion research from a physics teacher
International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science - website of the ISCMNS
JL Naudin's web site - the CFR project, a High Temperature Plasma Electrolysis based on the Tadahiko Mizuno work from the Hokkaido University (Japan)
 A Cold Fusion primer, in English and Italian
Harold Aspden|Aspden, Harold, Cold Fusion Lectures and Essays, 1998 (html available). It gives a firsthand thorough account of the efforts and experiments in the development of cold fusion, including the obstruction and hostility done by state agencies and the industry; it presents also the description of this British engineer and physicist GB Patent no. 2,231,195 (1993) and U.S. Patent no. 5,734,122 (1998).

新聞

1980年代
Elation Should Be Tempered Until Jury Has Examined Experiments The Financial Post (May 1 1989)
"Physicists Debunk Claim Of a New Kind of Fusion" - The New York Times (May 3 1989)
"PFC results said to deal blow to fusion claims" - MIT Tech (May 9 1989) - Early cold fusion claims set straight by work in their Plasma Fusion Center

1990年代
Whatever Happened to Cold Fusion? The American Scholar (Late 1994)
What If Cold Fusion Is Real? Wired, (November 1998)
Whatever happened to cold fusion? Physics World, (March 1999)
The War Against Cold Fusion - What's really behind it? SF Gate - (May 1999)

2000年代
Arthur C Clarke demands cold fusion rethink BBC News (September 2000)
 "Cold Fusion Heats Up. CBC Science, December 2003
 DoE warms to cold fusion Physics Today April 2004.
Warming up to Cold Fusion Washington Post Magazine (November 2004)
ICCF-11 Overview With Links to Presentations International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (November 2004)
U.S. review rekindles cold fusion debate Nature - (December 2004)
The 2005 Cold Fusion Colloquium Cold Fusion Times (May 2005) - Public gathering of cold fusion researchers at MIT
Cold-Fusion Believers Work On, Even as Mainstream Science Gives Them the Cold Shoulder Salt Lake City Weekly (October 2005)
ICCF-12 Overview With Links to Presentations International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (December 2005)
Does fusion scientist 'hold the secret'? Deseret Morning News (March 2006)
Fleischmann Joins D2Fusion to Develop Cold Fusion Heaters Pure Energy Systems News (March 2006)
Extraordinary Evidence for Cold Fusion U.S. Navy’s San Diego SPAWAR labs deliver evidence for Cold Fusion (Pamela Mosier-Boss and Stan Szpak) (November 2006)

書目 
 Krivit, Steven ; Winocur, Nadine. The Rebirth of Cold Fusion: Real Science, Real Hope, Real Energy. Los Angeles, CA, Pacific Oaks Press, 2004 ISBN 0-9760545-8-2.
 Charles Beaudette|Beaudette, Charles. Excess Heat: Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed, 2nd. Ed. South Bristol, ME, Oak Grove Press, 2002. ISBN 0-9678548-3-0.
 Robert L. Park|Park, Robert L. Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-513515-6. It gives a thorough account of cold fusion and its history which represents the perspective of the mainstream scientific community.
 Mizuno, Tadahiko. Nuclear Transmutation: The Reality of Cold Fusion. Concord, N.H.: Infinite Energy Press, 1998. ISBN 1-892925-00-1.
 Taubes, Gary. Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion. New York, N.Y. : Random House, 1993. ISBN 0-394-58456-2.
 Huizenga, John R. Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 1992. ISBN 1-878822-07-1; ISBN 0-19-855817-1. Huizenga was co-chair of the 1989 DOE panel set up to investigate the Pons/Fleischmann experiment
 Close, Frank E..Too Hot to Handle: The Race for Cold Fusion. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-691-08591-9; ISBN 0-14-015926-6.
 Mallove, Eugene Fire from Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor. Concord, N.H.: Infinite Energy Press, 1991. ISBN 1-892925-02-8. It's an early account from the pro-cold-fusion perspective.
</div>

核聚变
电弱理论
边缘物理学
伪物理学
病态科学