In one minute

Peter Hagelstein reviews his theory programme for the Fleischmann-Pons excess heat, whose central puzzle is the absence of energetic nuclear particles matching the energy released. His model combines nuclear excitation transfer, subdivision, and down-conversion of nuclear quanta into very many phonons. Its foundation is a phonon-nuclear interaction derived from a many-nucleon Dirac formalism. The first step transfers the 24 MeV quantum of the deuterium-to-helium-4 transition, and the analogous 5.5 MeV quantum of the HD-to-helium-3 transition is also examined. He identifies a nearby level in caesium-137 that could accelerate its decay, and proposes a new cobalt-57 to iron-57 resonant excitation transfer experiment in a near single crystal.

Recent Progress on Phonon-Nuclear Theoretical Models