- #1
Lelephant
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I've been reading about the more or less discarded study of LEFR (Low-Energy Fusion Reactions) and I've read that the only repeatable LEFR process has been Muon-Catalyzed Fusion -- whereas the muon replaces an electron in a deuterium atom and overcomes Coloumb's barrier by attracting itself toward the proton of another deuterium atom, close enough that the strong force kicks in and the two nuclei fuse and emit the muon -- which either goes on to catalyze more reactions or (1 - 2% probability) becomes "stuck" to the emitted alpha particle.
I've read that this has been achieved with Hydrogen isotopes (most notably deuterium) frozen in a block at around 3 or 4 Kelvin. I assume this is to bring the nuclei as close together so each muon survives longer as it spends less time attracting each pair of nuclei because it has less distance to cover.
My question is, if I had a 2 L vacuum that I completely drained of air, then filled with 2 L of deuterium gas, could a muon stream cause significant (or measurable) amounts of fusion amongst the nuclei of the deuterium gas?
How could I measure the energy emitted -- what physical tools would I use?
Could I simply use muons that naturally land on Earth (10,000 per square meter per second, I believe)? Why/why not? If not, where could one obtain a steady source of muons, and how could I tell how many muons I would need per liter of 99.9999% deuterium gas?
I've read that this has been achieved with Hydrogen isotopes (most notably deuterium) frozen in a block at around 3 or 4 Kelvin. I assume this is to bring the nuclei as close together so each muon survives longer as it spends less time attracting each pair of nuclei because it has less distance to cover.
My question is, if I had a 2 L vacuum that I completely drained of air, then filled with 2 L of deuterium gas, could a muon stream cause significant (or measurable) amounts of fusion amongst the nuclei of the deuterium gas?
How could I measure the energy emitted -- what physical tools would I use?
Could I simply use muons that naturally land on Earth (10,000 per square meter per second, I believe)? Why/why not? If not, where could one obtain a steady source of muons, and how could I tell how many muons I would need per liter of 99.9999% deuterium gas?