Neutrons form bound states with nanocrystals: how?

A very interesting observation is described in MIT News. The original article telling about the discovery can be found here. What has been found that neutrons form bound states with nanocrystals of size about 13 nm and are located outside the crystals.

In wave mechanics, the de Broglie wavelength for a neutron gives an idea of its quantum coherence scale, which should be on the order of 10 nanometers for quantum dots. The energy of the neutron must be above the thermal energy. The temperature must be at most milli Kelvin for this condition to be fulfilled.

The range of strong interactions is of order 10^-14 -10^-15 meters and extremely short as compared to the 10 nanometer scale of nanocrystals. I don't really understand how strong interactions could produce these states. Another strange feature is that neutrons are outside these quantum dots. Why not inside, if nuclear power is involved somehow?

Contrary to what the finnish popular article where I found this news first (see this) claims, neutrons interact electromagnetically. They have no charge but have a magnetic moment related to the neutron's spin so that they interact with the magnetic fields. How is this option ruled out? Is it really excluded?

In the TGD Universe, the new view of space-time implies that the magnetic fields of Maxwell's theory are replaced by magnetic flux quanta, typically flux tubes. Also monopole flux tubes are possible and explain quite a large number of anomalies related to the magnetic fields. The monopole flux tubes are actually basic objects in all scales.

Could one think that the neutrons reside at the monopole flux tubes associated with the nanocrystal? Could the neutrons be bound to the magnetic fields of the magnetic flux tubes and form cyclotron states? If so, the de Broglie wavelength would be related to the free motion in the direction of the necessarily closed monopole flux tube.

More generally, neutrons could have an effective Planck constant larger than the ordinary Planck constant and behave like dark matter. In the TGD based model of biomatter, phases of protons with very large effective Planck constant behaving like dark matter are in an essential role.

See the article TGD and condensed matter or the chapter with the same title.

For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.