Legit Cold Fusion

 Fusion at room temperature

Introduction:

Traditionally this premise is called COLD FUSION.The thing which Iron Man’sARC Reactor is based off!!. This isn’t a sci-fi idea/ premise that I am about describe to you, It is as real as the Sun; and isn’t even brand new experiment, it has been verified way back in the 50s.Fusion for the laymen is , forcefully inserting an electron in an atom to create immense energy as the product of the reaction , and for people with scientific knowledge , fusion of an electron happens when an atom like the hydrogen nuclei comes close enough together that their strong nuclear attraction can overcome the electric repulsion and they fuse into a Single , Bigger Nuclei that is , Helium . Naturally fusion doesn’t happen at, you know, room temperature, but at temperatures as high as the core of the sun , tens of millions of degrees.

A big thing we need to understand and that is truly super fascinating and super cool and that is Muons : The Super Electrons .

If you think it sounds like a superhero movie title , it is an intentional choice , Muons are like an upgrade from our lame electrons . They are fundamental particles of our universe . Look at them as the heavy cousin of Electrons , 207 times heavier to be precise. Their existence is possible and attributed to general relativity , and is an verifiable experiment of time dilation [Relativity incoming] i.e as we know we detect a lot of the muons from cosmic rays down on the surface of the earth and we know about muons really decay really fast that is if you have a bunch of muons you'll only be left with about 50% after 1.5 microseconds and 25% after 3 microseconds and after 10 microseconds there will only be 0.1 percent of the muons left, just 2.2 microseconds on average to put that time into perspective light travels fast enough that in one second it could go around the earth seven times but in 2.2 microseconds light will only travel 660 meters, so even muons traveling at essentially the speed of light wouldn't make it more than a kilometer or two . because the muons are traveling close to the speed of light their time literally passes more slowly at a speed of 99.5% the speed of light 2.2 microseconds for them would be about 22 microseconds for us enough time for the average muon to travel at least 6 kilometers before decaying, but High energy muouns going at 99.995% the speed of light, giving the average muon life for 220 microseconds and travel at least 66 kilometers before decaying so from our perspective the fact that so many cosmic ray muons reach our detectors on the Earth's surface is a direct evidence for special relativity and time dilation but from the muons perspective they do only live on average 2.2microseconds° and The fact if it is time dilation or length contraction depending on your perspective.

.                      Image credit- google

They also have the ability to create muonic versions of elements like muonic hydrogen (a proton and a muon) . But they decay very fast , in a few microseconds into electrons which in theory have an infinite life-span and neutrinos , so nevertheless very hard to store and as far as the natural occurrence goes, they are formed by cosmic rays interaction with our Atmosphere in small numbers. So best way to get them is artificially by Particle accelerators .

Legit Cold Fusion:

 First let’s understand the coldpart, if traditional fusion happens at temperatures relevant to the Suns core , room temperature is very cold in respect with that. But why does fusion need that much heat anyway ? its cause when heat/energy is increased and the atoms wiggle/vibrate more due to the increase in their kinetic energy , so when they get close enough that , in principle they can fuse ,but for Hydrogen, Nitrogen , Oxygen or pretty much any other element its very rare*. But when it comes to Muonic elements , due to their heavier orbits ; molecules held by muons instead of electrons are 200 times smaller , and the nuclei are 200 times closer , therefore more likelihood of fusing together , so much so that hydrogen molecules made of muons fuse together at room temperature , EVEN AT ABSOLUTE ZERO !!. It is known as Muon Catalysed Fusion and it was achieved way back in 1956 and predicted in 1947!. and is completely legit, So the real question is …

.                       Image credit- @google

Well it is a dream come true for the scientific community , but for the energy and arc reactor community it isn’t big (yet…). The problem with Muon catalysed fusion is the muon part itself ; AsMuons tend to decay in a few micro-seconds, anything we need to do with them needs to be done with them needs to be done very fast , but weirdly that isn’t the general problem. The cause lies in its economics, the fact that there isn’t any reliable natural source, so we need aparticle accelerator to create them that averages at 5 GeV per muon or 50 times its Mass-Energy. But after the Muon Catalysed Fu it approximates about 2.7 GeV per muon; which unfortunately means the number aren’t adding up that meaning more energy is going in than that is being produced , it isn’t even breaking even and that won’t cut it either we need magnitudes of it , so that it starts becoming feasible energy source. There are some hard problems** it’s facing to become a viable option all of them set , from the unchanging properties , let’s hope a new discovery changes that .

Footnotes:

If for example the fusion wasn’t extremely rare for elements like Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Oxygen , our atmosphere would be a fusion bomb cause of the immense number of molecules present in it.

Problems that if solved , could result in viable Cold fusion

A new way to make muons for low energy

Make them facilitate more fusion by not getting stuck to Helium atom Or even when it does , a way to unstick them so they can induce fusion again Relativistic length contraction, from the muons perspective it's the earth and the atmosphere which are moving at 99.995% the speed of light towards the muon and the lengths of moving objects are literally contracted by a factor dependent on their speed in this case 50 kilometers of our atmosphere is to the muon literally only half a kilometer which is thin enough for even a muon with a lifetime of 2.2 microseconds to traverse well actually from this perspective the atmosphere and ground moved past the muon but at a speed of 300 meters per microsecond and a distance of only 500 meters the ground has no problem reaching the muon before the muon decays this in my mind is one of the most awesome experimental verifications of special relativity the unequivocal time dilation or length contraction.

1) Muon Catalysed fusion –To be brief about what happens in it , we are facilitating basic fusion with muons and we don’t need a muon for every pair of hydrogen we are want to fuse . Because after a pair nuclei fuse into Helium the muon goes on to induce more and more Hydrogen’s to fuse but more often than not , it’ll getStuck with the helium atom and loses its ability to induce more fusion .

2) The Calculation of the 2.7 GeV per muon estimate :

 On an average a muonfacilitates approximately 150 fusions 

 Each fusion releases 18 MeV of energy , so after 150 fusions the energy is 2700 MeV or 2.7 GeV.

3)An Additional of 2.3 GeV is required to break even and an additional of 10-20 GeV for being used as a feasible energy source.

Article by-  Sudarsh