Let me summarize. We know that He4 is made by D-D fusion, which releases 23.8 MeV /event. We know that this energy has to be released without producing significant energetic radiation. We know from Karabut and my work that only a fraction of this energy is dissipated as kinetic energy of the nuclear product. In other words, a large amount of energy is missing. We also know that no obvious way exists to conserve momentum.
We would save a lot of time if these facts were accepted for the sake of this discussion. After all, these facts are accepted by the various theories and explained in several different ways. The question is, "Which explanation actually describes the process".
I argue that any theory that uses phonons is useless. That has been the subject most recently given attention.
I would like to add another possible explanation for discussion. Gordon has observed the emission of energetic electrons from a material known to support LENR. I have observed that the electron flux and the excess energy are affected in the same way by temperature when the same material is studied. I suggest these electrons carry the missing energy resulting from fusion and allow momentum to be conserved. They would be able to do this only if they had been part of the energy state that caused the fusion reaction. In other words, these electrons were initially assembled around the D nuclei and caused their seperation to be reduced enough for strong-force interaction to occur. Perhaps this is the new kind of electron-nucleus interaction that could get the Nobel Prize after it is explained. What are your thoughts?