Historical research guide · 0395 · 2005
Cold (Metal-Enhanced) Fusion, Geo-Fusion, and Cold Nucleosynthesis
S. E. Jones · J. E. Ellsworth
In one minute
Steven Jones and J. E. Ellsworth take the cold fusion question outdoors and downwards. Jones’s 1986 paper with Clinton Van Siclen asked whether fusion driven by pressure inside Jupiter’s liquid metallic hydrogen core could account for the heat that planet radiates; his 1989 Nature paper reported fusion products from deuterium-bearing metals. Here the two update that programme and then extend it. Deuterium-deuterium fusion makes tritium as well as helium-3, and tritium decays with a half-life of 12.4 years, so any tritium venting from a volcano was made recently and made deep. They point at a published survey of magmatic waters: most volcanoes show none, but Kilauea, fed by a plume rising from the core-mantle boundary, shows 3.21 tritium units, and the Alcedo geyser in the Galapagos shows 15.4. Both are hot-spot volcanoes, the deep-sourced kind. Then the bolder step. If a metal lattice can help two deuterons react, why not heavier nuclei? They call that cold nucleosynthesis, and say the experiments are running at Brigham Young University.
Connection
Chapter 12 treats the Coulomb barrier as something an environment can change rather than a wall, and this paper asks the same question of the largest laboratory available — the inside of a planet. It also does what chapter 1 asks of every claim: it names the measurement that would settle it, and the place to go and take it.
From the source
Natural fusion occurs in or near the core of the Earth, in the hot hydrogen-bearing metals and minerals subjected to extreme off-equilibrium conditions deep in the planet, producing tritium and helium-3 through deuteron-deuteron and proton-deuteron reactions.Section ’Volcanic Tritium Measurements as a Test for Natural Fusion in the Earth’, hypothesis statement
The hypothesis is testable by measuring tritium and helium-3 in magmatic fluids from hot-spot volcanoes that tap plumes rising from the core-mantle boundary: magmatic waters of Kilauea, Loihi and the Icelandic volcanoes are predicted to contain significant tritium, and tritium is predicted in Jupiter too, from cold fusion in or near its metallic hydrogen core.Same section, prediction paragraph
In the published volcanic survey the authors draw on, magmatic tritium was small or consistent with zero for subduction-zone volcanoes, but end-member magmatic fluid at Kilauea carried 3.21 plus or minus 0.13 tritium units and the Alcedo geyser in the Galapagos 15.4 plus or minus 0.5 — the two hot-spot cases, which also carry helium-3 to helium-4 ratios tens to hundreds of times higher than subduction-zone volcanoes.Same section, discussion of the Goff and McMurtry data and Figure 1
Because about one tritium half-life has passed since that baseline survey, a repeat measurement at Kilauea separates the two explanations cleanly: tritium from atmospheric bomb testing must have dropped dramatically by now, tritium made by fusion in the Earth must not have.Same section, closing paragraphs
If metal lattices enhance nuclear reactions between deuterons, reactions between heavier elements may be enhanced likewise; the authors propose cold nucleosynthesis as a natural extension of the original cold fusion hypothesis, with experiments underway at Brigham Young University using graphite rods along with various metals and deuterium.Section ’From Cold Fusion to Cold Nucleosynthesis’
Two older anomalies deserve re-examination in this light: Cecil’s intense bursts of energetic charged particles from deuterium-loaded titanium-alloy foils under high direct current and off-equilibrium thermal conditions, and Hubler’s MeV-energy reaction products during sub-keV deuterium beam charging of titanium — neither of which could be explained as deuteron-deuteron fusion.Same section, discussion of references 7 and 8
The way in
https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812701510_0055How to cite it
S. E. Jones, J. E. Ellsworth (2005) Cold (Metal-Enhanced) Fusion, Geo-Fusion, and Cold Nucleosynthesis doi:10.1142/9789812701510_0055