RESONANTLY EXCITED HYBRID FUSION OF HYDROGEN ISOTOPES ABSORBED IN SOLID MATTER

Abstract: Hydrogen and its isotopes (deuterium and tritium) are easily absorbed intometals like palladium or titanium, forming an interstitial solid solution.In the lowest-lying states, even at high densities, the collisionprobability between two of the absorbed hydrogen isotopes is a vanishing orabsolutely negligible quantity. Nevertheless there are relatively low-lyingexcited states (quantum collision states) for which the overlap probability is non-negligible. Typically, the quantum collision levels are separated from the ground state by energies in the ultraviolet - low X-ray range. Therefore they cannot be accessed by thermal excitations but may beresonantly excited by electromagnetic radiation. This leads to the proposal of a new process for energy production by nuclear fusion reactions: (1) The metal lattice is charged with the hydrogen isotope up to a level inwhich a large of number of the interstitial cages have at least two isotopeunits. (2) The quantum collision states are excited by resonant electromagneticradiation.

Description: Resonantly excited hybrid fusion of hydrogen isotopes absorbed in solid matter Description Hydrogen and its isotopes (deuterium and tritium) are easily absorbed into metals like palladium or titanium, forming an interstitial solid solution. The hydrogen isotopes occupy the free spaces between the atoms of the metal lattice. For the example of deuterons in a palladium lattice, in static conditions and when the number of deuterons is smaller or equal to the number of palladium nuclei, the closest distance between the deuterons is about twice the internuclear distance in an ordinary deuterium gas molecule. For higher concentrations, even when two deuterons are contained in one of the octahedral cages of the fee lattice, the equilibrium distance is estimated to be at least 30% larger than in the gas molecule. The conclusion is that, in equilibrium conditions, there is no special enhancement of the Coulomb barrier penetration factor and therefore, except maybe for occasional and irreproducible bursts corresponding to improbable large deviations from the equilibrium configurations, spontaneous fusion reactions of the interstitial deuterium are extremely unlikely. In ground state configurations, the collision probability between two of the absorbed hydrogen isotopes is a vanishing or absolutely negligible quantity. Nevertheless there are relatively low-lying excited states for which the overlap probability is non-negligible. These are, what may be called quantum collision states, some of these levels corresponding (in the scar sense) to unstable classical configurations of the potential. The general existence of such states for potentials with saddle points has been shown in [Phys. Lett. A239 (1998) 223]. Calculations for several configurations with realistic physical parameters have shown that, for hydrogen isotopes absorbed in metal lattices, the quantum collision levels are separated from the ground state by energies in the ultraviolet - low X-ray range. Therefore they cannot be accessed by thermal excitations but may be resonantly excited by electromagnetic radiation. This leads to the proposal of a new process for energy production by nuclear fusion reactions: (1) The metal lattice is charged with the hydrogen isotope up to a level in which a large of number of the interstitial cages have at least two isotope units. (2) The quantum collision states are excited by resonant electromagnetic radiation (typically in the ultraviolet - low X-ray range). Remarks: - Hydrogen, or its isotopes, are confined with relative ease in a metal lattice as compared with the difficulty of confining it in a hot plasma. However the metal lattice is merely used as a soft confining mechanism and no energetically useful spontaneous (cold) fusion are to be expected. - An additional mechanism must be provided to induce the fusion reactions. The resonantly excited quantum collision levels is such a mechanism. The name hybrid fusion tends to emphasize this dual nature of the proposed method.

Claims: Resonantly excited hybrid fusion of hydrogen isotopes absorbed in solid matter Claims A new process for energy production by nuclear fusion reactions based on: (1) Charging a metal lattice with an hydrogen isotope up to a level in which a large of number of the interstitial cages have at least two isotope units. (2) Excitation of the quantum collision states by resonant electromagnetic radiation.

Inventors: VILELA MENDES RUI, VILELA MENDES, RUI
Applicants: VILELA MENDES RUI, VILELA MENDES, RUI
Application year: 2001
Main classification: G21B1
IPC codes: G21B3