- #1
Cold_Fusion
- 9
- 0
I've often been fascinated by the tantalising nature of muon-catalysed fusion, and have recently been pondering it in the context of supersymmetry.
As a Chemist first and foremost, the nearly-chemical nature of the muon-catalysed fusion process really draws my attention. To my understanding the process goes a little like this:
You start your hydrogen molecule, perhaps singly ionised :
H - e - H
This has a proton/deuteron/triton to proton/deuteron/triton separation of approximately 1.1 angstroms (1x10^-10 m).
A muon (μ) is introduced. As a negatively-charged lepton, it acts like an electron forming a muonic molecule, potentially displacing the original electron:
H - μ - H
Due to the high mass of the muon, the bond-length of the molecule shrinks drastically, providing a proton/deuteron/triton to proton/deuteron/triton separation of approximately 0.5 picometers (5x10^-13 m), allowing fusion to occur via tunnelling at room temperatures and lower.
Unfortunately, the catch is that the muon is short-lived and costs more energy to make than it can generate through this process and can "stick" to the resulting helium nucleus. As a chemist, this is of no surprise, naked helium has a much higher total ionization energy than hydrogen (atomic or molecular).
As an aside - I'm wondering if perhaps flooding your muon-fusion reactor with IR or UV radiation appropriate to the stretching frequency He-μ bond interaction would help muon catalysis turnover, although I don't know what effect that would have on theoretical energy balance.
My main question is whether this would work with a supersymmetric electron - the selectron?
I haven't been able to find a range for the predicted mass of a selectron, but I'm guessing it is very high indeed, and would allow this process to happen readily. Furthermore, the selectron would presumable be stable, allowing for room temperature fusion to be easily harnessed (at only the cost of keeping the resulting selectron-helium atoms ionised, which may be a deal-breaker, depending on the strength of the interaction).
So the question is - does anyone know what kind of mass range the selectron, if it exists, would be expected to have?
Would the selectron be stable?
Is there any reason selectron-catalysed fusion a-la muon-catalysed fusion wouldn't work?
As a Chemist first and foremost, the nearly-chemical nature of the muon-catalysed fusion process really draws my attention. To my understanding the process goes a little like this:
You start your hydrogen molecule, perhaps singly ionised :
H - e - H
This has a proton/deuteron/triton to proton/deuteron/triton separation of approximately 1.1 angstroms (1x10^-10 m).
A muon (μ) is introduced. As a negatively-charged lepton, it acts like an electron forming a muonic molecule, potentially displacing the original electron:
H - μ - H
Due to the high mass of the muon, the bond-length of the molecule shrinks drastically, providing a proton/deuteron/triton to proton/deuteron/triton separation of approximately 0.5 picometers (5x10^-13 m), allowing fusion to occur via tunnelling at room temperatures and lower.
Unfortunately, the catch is that the muon is short-lived and costs more energy to make than it can generate through this process and can "stick" to the resulting helium nucleus. As a chemist, this is of no surprise, naked helium has a much higher total ionization energy than hydrogen (atomic or molecular).
As an aside - I'm wondering if perhaps flooding your muon-fusion reactor with IR or UV radiation appropriate to the stretching frequency He-μ bond interaction would help muon catalysis turnover, although I don't know what effect that would have on theoretical energy balance.
My main question is whether this would work with a supersymmetric electron - the selectron?
I haven't been able to find a range for the predicted mass of a selectron, but I'm guessing it is very high indeed, and would allow this process to happen readily. Furthermore, the selectron would presumable be stable, allowing for room temperature fusion to be easily harnessed (at only the cost of keeping the resulting selectron-helium atoms ionised, which may be a deal-breaker, depending on the strength of the interaction).
So the question is - does anyone know what kind of mass range the selectron, if it exists, would be expected to have?
Would the selectron be stable?
Is there any reason selectron-catalysed fusion a-la muon-catalysed fusion wouldn't work?