X-Ray Laser: Dynamically assisted nuclear fusion

Quote from barty

This sounds similar to Holmlids approach?

Not much, the laser that Holmlid is using is much much less powerful than a XFEL. In Holmlid's case, first there is a phase transition from Rydberg Matter of hydrogen to a supposed ultra condensed form with atoms separated by only about 1 picometer. Tunneling to fusion already happens without a laser.

Here they still use the brute force with crazy powerful lasers to overcome this repulsion. That said, I find this approach still better than thermonuclear fusion which IMHO is the worst approach to fusion.

>>> "not based on any currently available technology,"

Conclusions

Even though nuclear physics is customarily

associated with very high field strengths and energies (in the

MeV to GeV range), we find that nuclear fusion could be

assisted at much lower scales, which should come within

reach of present-day or near-future XFEL facilities

(or with electrons) ... [see appended snaps]

Apart from the deformation of the potential

barrier, the time dependence plays a crucial role for

assisting tunneling through the Coulomb barrier, in close

analogy to the dynamically assisted Sauter-Schwinger effect ...

We found that the tunneling exponent is enhanced ...

Note that dynamically assisted tunneling

has already been observed experimentally in several other

scenarios ...

The proposed dynamical assistance mechanism should also

work for other fusion reactions. An important example is

deuterium-deuterium fusion ...

In summary, our understanding of tunneling is still far from

complete and offers surprises which motivate further studies ...

After understanding the main mechanism better, the next

step would be to study whether it could be observed experimentally

and which scenario (e.g., beam-beam or beam-target

fusion, thermal or inertial fusion) might be most suitable.

These findings could then determine the potential for possible

future technological applications.

A laser doesn’t need to assist with tunneling to improve fusion, it just needs to change the state of the target and/or projectile such that some of their electric fields are converted to magnetic fields. With less repulsive force the coulomb barrier is smaller, and fusion occurs at a lower temperature.

The ability to create magnecules is the ability to create reactants with a lower coulomb barrier to fusion and hence colder fusion.