Edward Tsyganov presented Cold Nuclear Fusion at the Channeling 2014 Conference held October 5-10, Capri, Italy.
During the Oct. 8 roundtable session, Dr. Tsyganov has reported that “some of the participants suggested that we avoid rushing to promote cold fusion and, therefore, prevent any interference with the implementations of international tokamak ITER.”
Tsyganov explained, “… it is difficult to ignore the cold fusion process because it is much less expensive and much more practical than traditional thermonuclear fusion.”
Fig. 8. The transparency of the Coulomb barrier for the reaction of DD in the crystal depending on the effective interaction energy Eeff.The scientific community has always had trouble adapting to truly new knowledge. The current paradigm of nuclear physics does not contain effects such as cold fusion, although this phenomenon does not contradict any of the fundamental laws of nature. Attempts to generate controlled nuclear fusion, which have been conducted for nearly half a century, have already come a long way. The most advanced attempt, ITER, a tokamak of cyclopean size and corresponding value is currently under construction. Realists assess that this facility will take 35-50 years to complete and commence operations. It is only considered as a research project and is expected, after its launch, to start even more gargantuan industrial tokamak. The prospect of huge financial and material spends for another half century looms.
Oil and gas can no longer serve as global fuel, due to its exhaustion, while the companies will try to fight back. This way also may well lead to climate change, a population reduction, and social upheavals.
Cold fusion is a real alternative to this tragic scenario. We believe that in the coming years, the scientific success of cold nuclear fusion will be realized and a radical change in the applied nuclear research will come.
Unfortunately, cold fusion still seems to be quite distant from wide recognition, even though the issue is now practically solved in experimental and theoretical terms. At the moment we are facing a problem that is not scientific but sociological. It is difficult to predict how fast events will develop in this direction. A paradigm shift in science has never been an easy task for society. We should propose the optimal behavior for scientists in these circumstances.
Find Powerpoint presentation slides and photos of the event here:
A seminar “DD fusion in conducting crystals” by Edward Tsyganov will be held July 7 on 3:30 pm at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the N. N. Bogolyubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics in Dubna, Russia near Moscow.
“A brief background on cold fusion leading to a discussion on some aspects of atomic physics will be presented. Conduction electrons in metallic crystal are grouped in potential niches of the crystal lattice, resulting in a ban for s-states of hydrogen to occupy these same niches. At the same time, the filling of these niches with deuterium atoms is allowed for the excited atomic states of level 2p and above. We believe that this process of excitation of atomic states to the 2p level and above explains the first stage of the so-called cold fusion.”
The first 18 slides and conclusion from the presentation file are posted below.
The full presentation .pdf can be found here.
Physicist and cold fusion researcher Edward Tsyganov presented his research on low-energy collisions of atoms within a crystal at the Channeling 2012 Conference organized by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). A description of this work was summarized in our Q&A A Physicist’s Formula with Tsyganov.
Now, Registration of energy discharge in D + D 4He⁄ reaction in conducting crystals (simulation of experiment) [.pdf] has been published along with the Proceedings of the conference, and Tsyganov had this to say about the results of his research presented in the paper, and in particular, how it relates to Defkalion Green Technologies recent demonstration of the Hyperion R5 reactor:
“In the article presented to your attention here, we simulated the proposed experiment to further elucidate the nature of the process of the so-called cold fusion, which is observed in metallic crystals. We are convinced that in the present experimental evidence does not leave any room to doubt the reality of the existence of this phenomenon. Unfortunately, the negative attitude of the nuclear physics community to this new phenomenon, hastily formulated some 20 years ago in a poor repeatability of experiments of the time, remains dominant today.
It should be noted that the only calorimetric measurements, supporting cold fusion, have not been able to bring the experimenters to a correct explanation of this phenomenon. Help came from the accelerator experiments at low energies. It should be noted that the first cycle of these experiments took place in Japan as early as 1996-2000, but remained virtually unnoticed. Below these works are cited.
H Yuki, T Satoh, T Ohtsuki, T Yorita, Y Aoki, H Yamazaki and J Kasagi “D + D reaction in metal at bombarding energies below 5 keV”, J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 23 (1997) 1459-1464
J. Kasagi, H. Yuki, T. Itoh, N. Kasajima, T. Ohtsuki and A. G. Lipson “Anomalously enhanced d (d, p) t reaction in Pd and PdO observed at very low bombarding energies”, the Seventh International Conference on Cold Fusion, 1998, Vancouver, Canada:, ENECO, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT. : P. 180.
H. Yuki, J. Kasagi, A.G. Lipson, T. Ohtsuki, T. Baba, T. Noda, B.F. Lyakhov, N. Asami “Anomalous Enhancement of DD Reaction …”. JETP Letters, December 1998.
J. Kasagi, H. Yuki, T. Baba and T. Noda “Low Energy Nuclear Fusion Reactions in Solids”, 8th International Conference on Cold Fusion, 2000, Lerici (La Spezia), Italy: Italian Physical Society, Bologna, Italy.
A.G. Lipson, G.H. Miley, A.S. Roussetski, A.B. Karabut “Strong enhancement of dd-reaction …” The work was presented at the ICCF 10 in 2003 and is interesting due to recorded soft X-ray radiation.
Already at the conference ICCF 7 April 1998, Prof. Bressani quite clearly laid out the path to an explanation of the process of cold fusion based on this series of experiments. [See Nuclear Physics Aspects of Cold Fusion Experiments Scientific Summary after ICCF-7 by T. Bressani .pdf.]
Unfortunately, the cold fusion community has not followed the Bressani call; each group had its own theory of the process. In 2002-2009, a similar accelerator experiments at Gran Sasso (Rolfs et al) and Berlin (Czerski et al) successfully produced similar results . References to this work are given in our article. However, even after these experiments very few people realize what all of this might mean.
In our analysis, the only hypothesis which provides sufficient explanation of this “cold fusion” phenomenon , which the traditional nuclear physics community has found difficult to accept, is the assumption that the sub-barrier fusion reactions in the nuclear decay rate of the resulting composite intermediate nucleus is slowing down if the excitation energy of the intermediate nucleus is reducing. In this case, at the thermal energy of the reagents intermediate compound nucleus becomes metastable, and the energy transfer process to the electrons of the crystal lattice through the exchange of so-called virtual photons becomes effective.
If we talk about the DD reaction in metallic crystals, for the practical start of the reaction, we need to fill in all the possible deuterium vacancies in the crystal. When these positions are not filled the reaction is practically not observed. This is due to the vacancy and the extended location of the deuterium atoms from one another. This fact was the main reason for poor repeatability of experiments in the past. As the vacancy is filled with deuterium, the double fillings appear where the fusion process becomes much faster due to the deformation of the electron shells of deuterium in metallic crystals.
To conclude, it is especially important to comment on the recent experiments on the Hyperion reactor, under the direction of John Hadjichristos (ICCF 18). Hadjichristos took an interesting comparison of the process of deformation of the outer electron orbits of the reacting atoms with the detail of the legend of the Trojan horse in the capture of Troy. As was noted earlier in our studies, the deformation of the electron orbits can effectively mask the Coulomb barrier in the fusion reaction at very low (thermal) energy.
An extremely interesting (if confirmed) result of the experiments on the Hyperion is the emergence of strong magnetic fields during the cold fusion reactions. This result often immediately shuts down many theoretical constructions which can only explain the released nuclear energy going directly to the thermal vibrations of the crystalline lattice by nothing short of a magical force. For this reason, the closer look at the current experimental data presented here is so essential.”
—Edward N. Tsyganov
Original text:
Уважаемые коллеги!
В предлагаемой вашему вниманию статье мы провели расчеты предполагаемого эксперимента по дальнейшему выяснению природы процесса так называемого холодного синтеза, наблюдающегося в условиях металлических кристаллов. По нашему убеждению, в настоящее время экспериментальные факты не оставляют места никакому сомнению в реальности существования этого феномена. К сожалению, отрицательное отношение сообщества ядерной физики к этому новому явлению, поспешно сформулированное около 20 лет тому назад в условиях недостаточной повторяемости экспериментов того времени, остается попрежнему доминиружщим.
Нужно отметить, что одни только калориметрические измерения, подтвеждающие холодный синтез, оказались не в состоянии привести экспериментаторов к правильному объяснению этого явления. Помощь пришла со стороны ускорительных экспериментов при низких энергиях. Нужно отметить, что первый цикл этих экспериментов прошел в Японии еще в 1996-2000 гг, но остался практически незамеченным. Ниже приводятся эти работы.
H Yuki, T Satoh, T Ohtsuki, T Yorita, Y Aoki, H Yamazaki and J Kasagi “D+D reaction in metal at bombarding energies below 5 keV”в журнале J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 23 (1997) 1459–1464
J. Kasagi, H. Yuki, T. Itoh, N. Kasajima, T. Ohtsuki and A. G. Lipson “Anomalously enhanced d(d,p)t reaction in Pd and PdO observed at very low bombarding energies”, the Seventh International Conference on Cold Fusion, 1998, Vancouver, Canada:, ENECO, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT. : p. 180.
H. Yuki, J. Kasagi, A.G. Lipson, T. Ohtsuki, T. Baba, T. Noda, B.F. Lyakhov, N. Asami “Anomalous Enhancement of DD Reaction…”. Декабрь 1998 г, письма в ЖЭТФ.
J. Kasagi, H. Yuki, T. Baba and T. Noda “Low Energy Nuclear Fusion Reactions in Solids”, 8th International Conference on Cold Fusion, 2000, Lerici (La Spezia), Italy: Italian Physical Society, Bologna, Italy.
A.G. Lipson, G.H. Miley, A.S. Roussetski, A.B. Karabut “Strong enhancement of dd-reaction…” Работа была доложена на ICCF 10 в 2003 г. Интересна тем, что там регистрировалось мягкое рентгеновское излучение.
Уже на конференции ICCF 7 в апреле 1998 г проф. Брессани достаточно ясно изложил путь к объяснению процесса холодного синтеза, основанный на этой серии экспериментов. К сожалению, сообщество холодного синтеза не последовало призывам Брессани, у каждой группы была своя теория процесса. В 2002-2009 гг успешно прошли аналогичные эксперименты на ускорителях в Гран Сассо (Ролфс и др.) и в Берлине (Черский и др.). Ссылки на эти работы даются в нашей статье. Тем не менее, даже после этого мало кто осознал, что все это может означать.
В нашем рассмотрении единственной гипотезой, которая необходима для объяснения холодного синтеза и с которой традиционным ядерным физикам оказалось трудно согласиться, является предположение о том, что в реакции подбарьерного синтеза скорость распадов образующегося составного промежуточного ядра по ядерным каналам замедляется при уменьшении энергии возбуждения этого ядра. В этом случае при тепловых энергиях реагентов составное промежуточное ядро оказывается метастабильным, и процесс передачи энергии этого ядра электронам кристаллической решетки посредством обмена так называемыми виртуальными фотонами становится эффективным.
Если говорить о реакции DD в металлических кристаллах, то для практического начала реакции нужно заполнить дейтерием все возможные вакансии в кристалле. Пока эти вакансии не заполнены, реакция практически не наблюдается, так как вакансии и, соответственно, атомы дейтерия располагаются достаточно далеко друг от друга. Это обстоятельство являлось главной причиной плохой повторяемости опытов. При дальнейшем заполнении кристалла дейтерием появляются вакансии с двойным заполнением, где процесс синтеза протекает очень быстро из-за деформированности электронных оболочек дейтерия в металлических кристаллах.
Завершая это предисловие, необходимо особенно отметить недавние эксперименты на установке Гиперион под руководством Джона Хаджихристоса (ICCF 18). Хаджихристос приводит интересное сравнение процесса деформации внешних электронных орбит реагирующих атомов внутри кристаллических кристаллов с подробностями легенды о троянском коне при взятии Трои. Как отмечалось в наших первых работах, деформация электронных орбит позволяет эффективно преодолевать кулоновский барьер в реакции синтеза при низких (тепловых) энергиях.
Исключительно интересным результатом (если он подтвердится) экспериментов на установке Гиперион можно назвать возникновение сильных магнитных полей при протекании реакции холодного синтеза. Даже один этот результат Гипериона сразу закрывает многие теоретические построения, в которых выделившаяся ядерная энергия некоторым магическим образом переходит непосредственно в тепловые колебания кристаллической решетки.
In my point of view, series of the experiments in Gran Sasso Laboratory under leadership of Dr. Claus Rolfs and similar experiments in Berlin by Dr. K. Czerski and colleagues during 2002-2009 show unusually high electron screening potential in metallic crystals. These experimental facts give a good mechanism how the Coulomb barrier overcame with low energy (thermal) deuterons.
[latexpage]
“The circumstances of hot fusion are not the circumstances of cold fusion”, wrote Julian Schwinger, co-Nobel-prize winner with Richard Feynmann and Shinichiro Tomonaga in 1965 for their work on quantum electro-dynamics (QED).
But there is no shortage of hot fusion analysis of cold fusion. Might some ideas be applicable?
Edward Tsyganov believes so.
Dr. Tsyganov is a professor at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center who specializes in nuclear detectors, but in 1975, Tsyganov was part of an international group working on the Tevatron proton accelerator at Fermilab, just after successfully completing the first Russian-American scientific collaboration on the Serpukhov 70 GeV proton accelerator in Russia.
Muon catalysis had been discovered by Professor Luis Alvarez, whom he met at Lawrence Berkeley Lab in 1976. Although exciting, muon catalytic fusion did not look very promising to Tsyganov due to the short life time span of the muon.
Later, in December 1989, he was sitting in the audience of a seminar with Martin Fleischmann at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, having participated in the DELPHI experiment at the Large Electron Positron collider. [visit] He was very excited with Fleischmann’s presentation but, at the time, he had just introduced bent crystals for beam deflection, now used in high-energy physics. The study of crystalline structures drew him away from cold fusion research, which he had heard was “a false observation” anyway.
Gran SassoInspired by experimental work performed with the Gran SassoLaboratory Underground Nuclear Physics (LUNA) facility in Italy, Tsyganov recently returned to the topic of cold fusion. [visit]
Scientists there have shown that when a deuterium atom is embedded in a metallic crystal, the cross section, which gives a measure of the probability that a fusion reaction will occur, increases in comparison with that of free atoms.
In the 2002-2008 series of international low-energy accelerator experiments, low-energy deuterium beams directed at embedded deuterium atoms showed that, in this environment, the screening potential for the orbital electrons of the embedded atoms is substantially increased. This means that in such conditions, any supplemental embedded nuclei in a single host crystal cell could sit much closer than they normally would due to the Coulomb repulsion.
Can this idea be applied to the low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) in a solid?
The problem of overcoming the Coulomb barrier, the powerful force that keeps positively-charged protons away from each other, is the central issue for developing clean cold fusion energy. The force that holds nuclei together is called the strong nuclear force. Though it is an extremely powerful force, it only extends for a small distance. Unless nuclei can get close enough for the strong force to take effect, positively-charged nuclei remain too far away from each other to fuse. Elements other than hydrogen have an even bigger Coulomb barrier, since they have many more protons, and a stronger positive-charge. This is true for both free particles, and those housed in a solid metal.
JET Energy model of palladium metallic lattice infused with deuterium.But inside a metallic lattice, the negatively-charged conducting electrons are free to move about, creating a negatively-charged screen. As a result, a positively-charged proton (or deuteron) inside the lattice sees mostly negative charges. But at some point, the bare nucleus could find itself suddenly close to another of its kind, the other’s positive-charge being “hidden”, or screened, by all the surrounding negative charges.
In this environment, deuterons or other nuclei may sit closer together in one host crystalline cell than they normally would. In a paper Cold Nuclear Fusion [1], Tsyganov cites data obtained by Francesco Raiola et al, for the screening Assenbaum potential for deuterium embedded in platinum as 675 +/- 50 eV, which is around 25 times larger than for free atoms of deuterium.
“The so-called screening Assenbaum potential is usually considered as an additional energy of interaction in a fusion process, and this effective energy should be used for calculations,” writes Tsyganov.
“This means that atoms of deuterium embedded in a metallic crystal do not feel the Coulomb repulsion down to distances of 25 times smaller than the size of the free deuterium atoms, increasing the probability of barrier penetration.”
“It was evident that in such conditions two deuteron atoms could approach each other to the distance of 1/10 – 1/20 of the size of an undistorted atom, without feeling the Coulomb repulsion.”
“Normally at very low energies for the deuterium molecule, the Coulomb barrier permeability for deuterium atoms is of the order of $10^{-84}$, including the Assenbaum screening potential (27 eV). However, in an environment of a single metallic crystalline cell this value jumps by $10^{50}$ – $10^{60}$ times! At the same time the real kinetic energy of the interacting deuterium atoms is still very low, some tiny fraction of an eV. All the enhancement of Coulomb barrier permeability is due to much shorter distance between the interacting deuterium nuclei.”
At low energies, the Coulomb barrier permeability is lowered and nuclei can position closer together. “As one can see from the graph, in the region of low effective kinetic energies, as in the case of cold fusion, the dependence of the quantum mechanical probability of Coulomb barrier penetration vs energy is very sharp.”
For Tsyganov, this illustrates the difference between hot fusion and cold fusion.
“Hot fusion produces compound nuclei through multiple single encounters of the particles. In cold fusion, particles interact with the same partner through the quantum oscillations in a ‘closed box…'”, he writes. “This oscillation frequency is directly proportional to the screening potential, or box “size”, giving an additional boost to the process.”
Suppose that two deuterium atoms are trapped inside a single crystalline cell of palladium. The electrons associated with the deuterium will have an elongated shape in response to the cloud of conduction electrons, their orbits distorted by the catalytic effect. This is what allows the deuterium nuclei to situate themselves only a fraction of the distance they would normally tolerate.
Together, these two atoms make a “quasi-molecule” that oscillates at a particular frequency. While Tsyganov admits that calculating the particular oscillation frequency of a deuterium quasi-molecule in the midst of so many potential fields inside the crystal is difficult, he uses Planck’s relation as an approximation to give a frequency $\nu = E/h$, where $E$ is the experimentally measured screening potential and $h$ is Planck’s constant.
For deuterium embedded in a platinum metallic crystal, the screening potential was measured by Raiola as about 675 eV. This gives a vibrational frequency for the quasi-molecule as $1.67 \hspace{1 mm}\text{x}\hspace{1 mm} 10^{17}$ per second, and offers an estimate of the number of times the nuclei get close enough to fuse.
Multiplying this value for the oscillation frequency by the barrier permeability, a measure of the ability to overcome the Coulomb repulsion, of $2.52 \hspace{1 mm}\text{x}\hspace{1 mm} 10^{-17}$ yields a rate of 4.21 Deuterium-Dueterium fusion events per second.
Based on the calculation above, this table estimates DD fusion rates for crystals of palladium and platinum.
“I took this observation and applied these enlarged screening potential to the condition of McKubre experiments with deuterated palladium”, says Tsyganov.[1] “Heat release of Michael McKubre and the SRI team is well explained. In fact, this is the first confirmation of the cold fusion process using independent data from accelerators.”
Tsyganov believes experiments of Yoshiaki Arata and similar experiments of Mitchell Swartz could be also explained with this mechanism, if “quantitative data on deuterium contamination in palladium nano-crystals would be available.” He is convinced that the mechanism in McKubre’s experiments and that of Arata and Swartz’ are the same.
“Experiments of Francesco Piantelli and Andrea Rossi are well fitted in the above model. Higher heat release in the Rossi case is probably explainable by the use of platinum catalyst”, writes Tsyganov.
“Professor S.B. Dabagov, Professor M.D. Bavizhev and I have tried to analyze the nuclear processes occurring in the Ecat installation and provide a possible explanation for the observed results, says Tsyganov. “In addition to the slowing of the nuclear decay processes of the intermediate compound nucleus formed during the cold fusion of elements [2], some modification of the decay process of the intermediate nucleus of the compound (H+Ni)* must be assumed to provide a plausible explanation of the Rossi results. We discuss such possibilities in this paper.”
Tsyganov’s idea pertains to how nuclei might become situated close enough inside a metal to overcome the Coulomb barrier and fuse, an idea derived from hot-fusion experiments. Still, he believes this model can be applied to the cold fusion environment too, claiming predictions agree well with heat energy measured by SRI and extend to the nickel-hydrogen systems as well.
I asked Dr. Tsyganov how his model might explain some other experimental data in cold fusion.
Dr. Tsyganov attended the 2011 LANR/CF Colloquia at MIT.
Q&A with Edward Tsyganov
CFN Supposing two deuterium can fuse in this way, how would the heat be dissipated through the lattice?
Tsyganov There is the traditional belief among nuclear scientists that nothing in a nucleus could depend on the outside world. It is very true for the fast processes in a nucleus (and these processes usually are very fast due to the very small size of a nucleus) because it is necessary that some time pass to reach the outside world. This time is about $10^{-19}$ seconds and is defined by the size of atom and speed of light.
However, according to the only hypothesis of mine, the intermediate compound nucleus 4He* created in cold DD fusion, as also in other cold fusion cases, presents an absolutely unique situation. After the penetration of main Coulomb barrier (about 200 keV high), deuterons save their identities for some time, due to the residual Coulomb mini-barrier, already inside the strong potential well. This mini-barrier very much reduced and smothered by the strong interaction forces (quark-gluon mechanism) and the finite sizes of the deuterons, but still prevents immediate nucleonic exchange between the two deuterons.
This figure represents the bottom of the potential well of strong interactions of two deuterons.In my estimations, this mini-barrier is less than 2 keV high (~1% of the main Coulomb barrier), because at this kinetic energy usual nuclear decays of 4He* are still taking place. In fact, the Gran Sasso experiments, where this enhanced screening potential was discovered, used nuclear products to detect fusion processes. However, excitation (thermal) energy at cold fusion is still more than $10^{4}$ times less than 2 keV, or about 0.040 eV. Obviously, one can expect decreasing of nuclear decay rate of 4He* with decreasing of excitation energy.
I would highlight again that the decrease of nuclear decay rate at the very low excitation energy is the only hypothesis in all my consideration.
This situation could be treated as the experimental evidence. High electron screening potentials makes the cold fusion process the must. At the same time there are no neutrons and other nuclear products detected experimentally. An explanation must be provided. The only explanation (and the very reasonable one) that I could think of is the decrease of nuclear decay rate with decreasing of the energy of excitation.
If one adopts this hypothesis, further explanation does not presents real difficulties. Quantum electrodynamics provides the framework, through exchange by the virtual photons. Julian Swinger was very close to this solution but did not make the final step. Energy of discharge 4He* to the ground state 4He is released mostly by several hundreds of low energy electrons, with very short range in the crystal. About 400 60 keV electrons produce the heat.
CFN How might the production of tritium be explained with this process?
Tsyganov Production of tritium in McKubre’s experiments could be explained, if the nuclear decay rate of 4He* in cold fusion is reduced, but still non-negligible. This rate is at least two orders of magnitude less than expected for hot fusion. Perhaps, cracks and defects of the palladium sample could also contribute. I hope this question could soon be answered in future studies.
CFN Thank you Dr. Tsyganov.
Tsyganov My pleasure.
[1] Cold Nuclear Fusion by E.N. Tsyganov published Physics of Atomic Nuclei 2012, Vol. 75, No. 2, pp. 153–159 [.pdf]
[2] Cold Fusion Continues by E.N. Tsyganov, S.B. Dabagov, and M.D. Bavizhev, from the Proceedings of “Solid State Chemistry: Nano-materials and Nanotechnology” Conference, 22-27 April, 2012, Stavropol, Russia Report in Stavropol 4-24-2012 [.pdf]
[3] Cold Nuclear Fusion by E.N. Tsyganov on Journal of Nuclear Physics [visit]
