On Dec 9, 2009, at 11:25 AM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
At 02:05 PM 12/9/2009, you wrote:
Have you considered ultra-low momentum neutrons, as proposed by WL
that never even leave the local environment, and which therefore
would not cause NA, or very little NA?
Correct me if I'm wrong, somebody. Thermal neutrons are neutrons
which have momentum determined by thermal equilibrium. I.e., if a
neutron were formed with "ultra-low momentum" (relative to what?),
it would rapidly become a thermal neutron from interactions with
other present species.
The "WL" above refers to Windom and Larsen. Some background is here:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0509269v1
Some quotes from the above related to my prior post:
"Low energy nuclear reactions in the neighborhood of metallic hydride
surfaces may be induced by ultra-low momentum neutrons. Heavy
electrons are absorbed by protons or deuterons producing ultra low
momentum neutrons and neutrinos. The required electron mass
renormalization is provided by the interaction between surface
electron plasma oscillations and surface proton oscillations. The
resulting neutron catalyzed low energy nuclear reactions emit copious
prompt gamma radiation. The heavy electrons which induce the
initially produced neutrons also strongly absorb the prompt nuclear
gamma radiation, re-emitting soft photons. Nuclear hard photon
radiation away from the metallic hydride surfaces is thereby strongly
suppressed."
"... the mean free path of a hard prompt gamma ray is L ∼ 3.4 x 10
−8 cm. Thus, prompt hard gamma photons get absorbed within less than
a nanometer from the place wherein they were first created."
" ... one finds a neutron mean free path of ∼ 10^−6 cm. An ultra
low momentum neutron is thus absorbed within about ten nanometers
from where it was first created. The likelihood that ultra low
momentum neutrons will escape capture and thermalize via phonon
interactions is very small."
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
