Synopsis of Widom-Larsen Theory Paper #1

By Lewis G. Larsen, Edited by S. B. Krivit - Jan. 29, 2012 x

"Ultra Low Momentum Neutron Catalyzed Nuclear Reactions on Metallic Hydride Surfaces," A. Widom and L. Larsen, European Physical Journal C - Particles and Fields46 pp. 107 (2006 – released on arXiv in May 2005) Rigorously explains physics of how of collectively oscillating, quantum mechanically entangled, many-body surface ‘patches’ of protons or deuterons (p + or d +) on loaded metallic hydride surfaces become locally coupled to nearby entangled, collectively oscillating surface plasmon electrons (e -) via local breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. This creates short-range, nuclear-strength local electric fields above 2 x 10^11 Volts/meter in the vicinity of such ‘patches.’ Per well-accepted quantum electrodynamics principles outlined in Landau & Lifshitz, local surface plasmon electrons bathed in such high E-fields can experience substantial increases in their effective masses, which after key local E-field strength thresholds are exceeded, in turn enables significant numbers of such ‘heavy’ electrons to react directly with protons or deuterons to produce neutrons via a weak interaction (p + e --> 1n + neutrino or d + e--> 2n + neutrino). Neutrons produced collectively in such many-body weak reactions in condensed matter (in discrete nanoscale LENR-active surface sites) have huge quantum mechanical DeBroglie wavelengths that must perforce span the physical dimensions of many-body ‘patches’ in which they were created (from a nanometer up to perhaps 100 microns in diameter). Such neutrons will necessarily have “ultra low momentum” (i.e., extraordinarily low kinetic energy) and thus enormous capture cross-sections on any nearby nuclei located within the ~spherical envelope of ULM neutrons’ spatially extended DeBroglie wave functions. Collectively produced ULM neutrons will thus be captured locally. Therefore, large, externally detectable fluxes of energetic neutrons will not typically be observed. This strong prediction of W-L theory is consistent with 20+ years of experimentation in LENRs; explains exactly why lethal fluxes of energetic neutrons are never produced. This paper also clearly explains why the Coulomb barrier is a non-issue in LENRs; being uncharged neutral particles there is no such barrier to local capture of ULM neutrons by ‘target’ nuclei. Lastly, there is no “new physics” used anywhere in this paper.