On Dec 29, 2011, at 8:18 PM, Daniel Rocha wrote:
Horace, have you heard about the degenerate state in focus fusion
device for pB11 fusion?
This is a different use of the term "degenerate state". The more
specific term there is "Fermi degeneracy" as opposed to "degenerate
quantum states", which describes linked quantum states of the same
energy, dual states of existence, states which require no energy for
transition and which release no radiant energy upon transition.
Fermi degeneracy occurs in stars when the density is so high that
Fermi pressure prevents further collapse. Fermi pressure is said to
be due to the fact that only one Fermion can occupy a given quantum
state.
It is also true that electrons in metals with absorbed hydrogen can,
as the percent absorbed hydrogen increases to a sufficient level,
occupy all the available quantum states. Electrons in this state are
also said to be degenerate. I wrote about the possible relevance of
this to cold fusion in the "ELECTRON FUGACITY" section of my I.E.
cold fusion paper, page 6 ff, and in other places:
http://www.mtaonline.net/%7Ehheffner/DeflationFusion2.pdf
Now, coincidentally, or not so much, outward orbital pressure is a
result of quantum uncertainty. As an electron orbital is
compressed, the Heisenberg principle results in a kinetic energy
increase which manifests as (outward) pressure. It is this pressure
in fact, that establishes the ground state energy and size of
hydrogen atoms (and many other states.) It is this pressure, and
given the volume displacement involved, energy, that I say can
"reinflate" the orbital of trapped electrons, electrons that escape
the heavy nucleus that traps them, when they do not have the kinetic
energy to escape otherwise. This uncertainty pressure can be
referred to as "Schroedinger pressure" or "quantum pressure". I
think it is also sometimes referred to as "Fermi pressure".
There is an intimate relationship between Schrodinger pressure and
the Casimir force. I see these as different sides of the same coin,
i.e of zero point energy. The two effects come into play in the
formation of EV's, electron charge clusters, for example. See
Puthoff's article:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0408114
The (expansive) energy due to Schrodinger pressure of the hydrogen
atom, not so coincidentally, just balances the (contractive) Coulomb
force energy at the Bohr radius, and this is a minimum energy state,
thus a stable state. However, at the Bohr radius, the magnetic
force and potential between the electron and nucleus are near zero
and ignored. Also, the particles are not relativistic. At a small
radius the magnetic binding energy can overcome the Coulomb binding
energy and the Schrodinger pressure, at least momentarily. The
Schrodinger kinetic energy of a hydrogen electron is a stochastic
variable. This magnetic binding can happen for a short time but also
at a high frequency, depending on lattice conditions. In a magnetic
orbital the uncertainty energy of the electron decreases by a factor
of 1/gamma of the electron, and the inverse square of r. As r
decreases gamma increases. In the small orbital radii shown in my
computations, the de Broglie wavelengths of the electron and
nucleating body do not even overlap. Schoredinger pressure is
entirely eliminated by relativistic effects, i.e. by the increase in
electron and nuclear mass. This greatly increases the feasible
lifetime of the configuration.
When the highly magnetically bound electron plus nucleus jointly
tunnel into a heavy nucleus, no kinetic energy is gained or lost via
this tunneling process of the neutral ensemble, other than the
magnetic potential with the nucleus. The hydrogen nucleus binds with
the heavy nucleus by the strong force. This leaves the electron with
insufficient kinetic energy to escape the nucleus. It is still
magnetically bound with the nearby nuclear constituents, all of which
have nuclear magnetic moments, and now suddenly bound by the Coulomb
force of numerous protons. This creates an initial energy deficit
from the tunneling action, and a newly fused nucleus.
I hope this makes some sense of these concepts and does not merely
confuse everything.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
