Nuclear physics objections against Rossi's reactor

The reading of Rossi's paper and Wikipedia article led me to consider in more detail various objections against Rossi's reactor. Coulomb barrier, the lack of gamma rays, the lack of explanation for the origin of the extra energy, the lack of the expected radioactivity after fusing a proton with ⁵⁸Ni (production of neutrino and positron in beta decay of ⁵⁹Cu), the unexplained occurrence of 11 per cent iron in the spent fuel, the 10 per cent copper in the spent fuel strangely having the same isotopic ratios as natural copper, and the lack of any unstable copper isotopes in the spent fuel as if the reactor only produced stable isotopes.

Could natural isotope ratios be determined by cold fusion?

The presence of Cu in natural isotope ratios and the absence of unstable copper isotopes of course raise the question whether the copper is just added there. Also the presence of iron is strange. Could one have an alternative explanation for these strange co-incidences?

1. Whether unstable isotopes of Cu are present or not, depends on how fast ^ACu, A<63 decays by neutron emission: this decay is expected to be fast since it proceeds by strong interactions. I do not know enough about the detailed decay rates to be able to say anything about this.

2. Why the isotope ratios would be the same as for naturally occurring copper isotopes? The simplest explanation would be that the fusion cascades of two stable Ni isotopes determine the ratio of naturally occurring Cu isotopes so that cold fusion would be responsible for their production. As a matter fact, TGD based model combined with what is claimed about bio-fusion led to the proposal that stable isotopes are produced in interstellar space by cold fusion and that this process might even dominate over the production in stellar interiors. This wold solve among other things also the well-known Lithium problem. The implications of the ability to produce technologically important elements artificially at low temperatures are obvious.

Could standard nuclear physics view about cold fusion allow to overcome the objections?

Consider now whether one could answer the objections in standard nuclear physics framework as a model for cold fusion processes.

1. By inspecting stable nuclides one learns that there are two fusion cascades. In the first cascade the isotopes of copper would be produced in a cascade starting from with ⁵⁸Ni+n→ ⁵⁹Cu and stopping at ⁶³Cu. All isotopes ^ACu, A ∈{55,62} are unstable with lifetime shorter than one day. The second fusion cascade begins from ⁶³Ni and stops at ⁶⁵Cu.

2. The first cascade involves five cold fusions and 4 weak decays of Cu. Second cascade involves two cold fusions and one weak decay of Cu. The time taken by the cascade would be same if there is single slow step involved having same duration. The only candidates for the slow step would be the fusion of the stable Ni isotope with the neutron or the fusion producing the stable Cu isotope. If the fusion time is long and same irrespective of the neutron number of the stable isotope, one could understand the result. Of course, this kind of co-incidendence does not look plausible.

3. ^A-5Fe could be produced via alpha decay ^ACu→ ^A-4Co+α followed by ^A-4Co→ ^A-5Fe +p.

Could TGD view about cold fusion allow to overcome the objections?

The claimed absence of positrons from beta decays and the absence of gamma rays are strong objections against the assumption that standard nuclear physics is enough. TGD framework it is possible to ask whether the postulated fusion cascades really occur and whether instead of it weak interactions in dark phase of nuclear matter with range of order atomic length scale are responsible for the process because weak bosons would be effectively massless below atomic length scale. For TGD inspired model of cold fusion see this and this).

1. The nuclear string model assumes that nucleons for nuclear strings with nucleons connected with color bonds having quark and antiquark at their ends. Color bonds could be also charged and this predicts new kind of internal structure for nuclei. Suppose that the space-time sheets mediating weak interactions between the color bonds and nucleons correspond to so large value of Planck constant that weak interaction length scale is scaled up to atomic length scale. The generalization of this hypothesis combined with the p-adic length scale hypothesis is actually standard piece of TGD inspired quantum biology (see this).

2. The energy scale of the excitations of color bond excitations of the exotic nuclei would be measured in keVs. One could even consider the possibility that the energy liberated in cold fusion would correspond to this energy scale. In particular, the photons emitted would be in keV range corresponding to wavelength of order atomic length sale rather than in MeV range. This would resolve gamma ray objection.
3. Could the fusion process ⁵⁸Ni+n actually lead to a generation of Ni nucleus ⁵⁹Ni with one additional positively charged color bond? Could the fusion cascade only generate exotic Ni nuclei with charged color bonds, which would transform to stable Cu by internal dark W boson exchange transferring the positive charge of color bond to neutron and thus transforming it to neutron? This would not produce any positrons. This cascade might dominate over the one suggested by standard nuclear physics since the rates for beta decays could be much slower than the rate for directed generation of Ni isotopes with positively charged color bonds.

4. In this case also the direct alpha decay of Ni with charged color bond to Fe with charged color bond decaying to ordinary Fe by positron emission can be imagined besides the proposed mechanism producing Fe.

5. If one assumes that this process is responsible for producing the natural isotope ratios, one could overcome the basic objections against Rossi's reactor.

The presence of em radiation in keV range would be a testable basic signature of the new nuclear physics as also effects of X-ray irradiation on measured nuclear decay and reaction rates due to the fact that color bonds are excited. As a matter fact, it is known that X-ray bursts from Sun in keV range has effects on the measured nuclear decay rates and I have proposed that the proposed exotic nuclear physics in keV range is responsible for the effect. Quite generally, the excitations of color bonds would couple nuclear physics with atomic physics and I have proposed that the anomalies of water could involve classical Z⁰ force in atomic length scales. Also the low compressibility of condensed matter phase could involve classical Z⁰ force. The possible connections with sono-luminescence and claimed sonofusion are also obvious (see this).