MSimon wrote: http://aleklett.wordpress.com/2011/04/1 ... w-physics/
To make stable Cu-63 from stable Ni-58 the following must happen. Ni-58 picks up a hydrogen nucleus to form Cu-59 which decays to Ni-59, which in turn picks up a hydrogen nucleus to form Cu-60 which decays to Ni-60, which in turn picks up a hydrogen nucleus to form Cu 61 which decays to Ni-61, which in turn picks up a hydrogen nucleus to form Cu-62 which decays to Ni-62, which in turn picks up a hydrogen nucleus to form Cu-63 which is stable. If this reaction chain would be true even though none of the reactions that I mention can be made with the knowledge we have today, then the isotopic distribution Cu-63/Cu-65 must be greater than 80/20, probably closer to 99/01. Right now, my conclusion is that the isotope distribution measured and the fact that the sample had 10% copper indicate that it is contaminated with natural copper. Of course I am willing to change my opinion if you can prove me wrong.
I think there are several errors or shortcuts here.
Ni58 either picks up a proton to yield Cu59 or Ni58 picks a neutron to yield Ni59, which quickly beta decays to Cu 59. Etc...
I think the idea is that low energy neutrons are made out of protons (hydrogen nucleus). If so a cascade of neucleosynthesis may be reasonable. But why stop at Cu63. Couldn't you go all the way to uranium or beyond? Thermal neutrons should continue the process till a whole zoo of heavier isotopes are obtained (admittedly in decreasing amounts , but still measurable). Much as a reverse of the isotope soup from uranium fission that is heat producing and (some) long lived. The key to this nucleosynthesis is the production of exothermic neutrons in the first step (burning from ~ carbon/ oxygen to iron along with any left over lighter elements.in certain types of supernova. The lighter elements quickly fuse to ~ iron, and a whole bunch of neutrons. These neutrons then build successively heavier elements till the neutrons are all consumed or they exit the area.
If this is the mechanism of the Rossi device, then radiation spectra should reveal this, and absence of this data is both curious and not threatening. I think this would not reveal any secrete catalyst, except for possibly the starting isotope of nickel. So preventing gamma measurements does not have any proprietary advantage
Also, with this picture, any number of situations/ experiments should have shown this obvious and relatively intense LENR reaction,
I speculate that even warm Nickel Metal Hydride batteries would show this effect (they can get quite hot if charged too quickly) and led to head scratching and investigation by the battery industry.
Thus the claimed secret catalyst can not be some natural isotope of nickel (enriched or not). It has to be some other real or imagined ingredient.
If the proton to neutron reaction can occur based on the Widom-Larsen theory, it must be so very rare that it is totally insignificant, as there are just too many natural situations in astronomy and on Earth where it would have been obvious - if not devastating to our possibilities of existence.
Even if you argue that there is some resonance or very narrow range of conditions where this can occur, the magnitude of the effect would have to be many orders of magnitude multiplication (like 10^20-30 X ?) to get energy densities claimed for the Rossi device.
IE: In my reasoning, if the Widom-Larsen theory is valid it must be a very small effect (much less than the recognized P-P fusion sequence in stars), and as such it is not a candidate for the huge effects claimed for the Rossi device. I suspect it would also be many orders of magnitude in strength to weak to explain the more feeble main line LENR claims. And, if it exists I don't know if it would even apply to systems using deuterium as the fuel. Though, accepting the premise, the deuterium (heavy water) LENR cells might have had their low, and less obvious excess heating due to natural water contaminates in the heavy water. But, if that was the case, surely many of the labs would have used normal water in their cells as a control. The surprising results, possibly from proton reversed beta decay, would then have been very obvious early on.
Note : If the protons (hydrogen nuclei) are not being fused into heavier elements like deuterium, helium, etc. that are lighter than iron, but it is being added to nickel- directly or through a conversion to a neutron intermediate, these are generally endothermic reactions. Unless the initial proton to neutron reaction yielded enough energy to overcome the endothermic neucleosynthesis of Nickel to heavier elements, there is no way there could be a positive energy balance. The nickel in a 'conventional' LENR cell might catalyze or enhance the conversion of eg- deuterium to helium by exotic pathways that do not make measurable radiation, and yield excess energy. But if the Nickel is a fuel , transmutting it to copper will consume energy, not produce it, no matter what other catalyst might be involved.
Dan Tibbets