A theory paper
Display MoreRecoil assisted low energy nuclear reactions
Péter Kálmán and Tamás Keszthelyi
Budapest University of Technology and Economics,
Institute of Physics,
Low energy nuclear processes that are strongly hindered by Coulomb repulsion between the reacting
nuclei, are investigated in solid environment. It is shown that the hindering effect may be
significantly weakened (practically it diappears) if one takes into account the Coulomb interaction
of one of the reacting particles with the surroundings. It is obtained that if the modification of the
wave function due to Coulomb interaction with charged constituents of the environment is taken into
account applying standard perturbation calculation of quantum mechanics then wave components
of high momentum with small amplitude are mixed to the initial wave of small momentum. To these
partial waves of high momentum much higher Coulomb factor can be attached that can drastically
increase the cross section. The mechanism (called recoil assistance) opens the door to a great variety
of nuclear processes that so far have been thought to have negligible rate at low energies. The recoil
assisted nuclear pd reaction is investigated like a sample reaction numerically. Low energy nuclear
reactions allowed by recoil assistance and leading to nuclear transmutations are partly overviewed.
Critical analysis of Fleischmann-Pons type low energy nuclear reaction experiments is presented too.
