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Saturday, December 31, 2011

A Brief History of Cold Fusion Research


Although fusion was not known in the 1920’s, 
Friedrich Adolf Paneth predicted together 
with Kurt Peters that the sun produced its 
energy this way. They even reported the 
transformation of hydrogen into helium by
spontaneous nuclear catalysis at room temperature
and normal pressure. He compared the results obtain from 
using various forms of palladium and nickel. The so-called 
cold fusion research was used by J. Tandberg to apply for
 the first patent on Feb. 17, 1927. Received but not 
understood, was the reply from the patent office. 
 The effect was “rediscovered” more than 60 years 
later by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann.

One day after work, John Tandberg did an interesting
experiment in the evening. He had a small wire of the metal
palladium.  By electrolysis of heavy water, using this wire as
cathode, he had saturated it with deuterium in the same way he had
previously done with ordinary hydrogen (1927). Consequently, it could
be expected to contain very densly packed deuterium nuclei.

He was now going to blast the wire by letting a condensor battery,
charged with a high voltage, discharge through it. This would mean a
sudden vaporization during a violent increase of pressure and
temperature.

The densly packed deutrons should get a high energy and there should
be good conditions for violent collisions with nuclear reaction and
fusion as a result. These reactions involve some loss of mass by the
nuclei, so one could expect energy generation according to Einstein's
theory.

The electric discharges sounded like powerful shots, but some nuclear
physical effect - hard radiation or radioactive residues - could not
be detected with the equipment John possessed at the time." 
A similar experiment was done by SPAWAR in 2011 yielding positive
 results two out three times. Then, they were ordered to cease work 
in this area.



Ultimately,  Adolf Paneth  fulfilled the alchemist’s dream: The first 
chemical evidence of artificial transmutation was
proven by Paneth and his associate Paul L. Günther.
They used the radiation from thorium to bombard
paraffin resulting in the production of helium.
In contrast to earlier works on transmutation, where
all products were detected physically, in this work,
the amount of helium was large enough to be detected
chemically (1933).


The modern emphasis has shifted to weapons. In the 
1940's the Germans patented bombs based on U-233. 
The United States used U-235 and plutonium in theirs.

The hope still lives that after all the nuclear disasters, we will
see the light and switch to safer forms of nuclear energy.

French Patent:
FR646856A 1928-11-16 Improvements brought to the processes and means for the production of electrical energy

European Patent: EP1551032A1 HYDROGEN CONDENSATE AND METHOD OF GENERATING HEAT THEREWITH



Quenching the Cold Fusion Reaction

The following methods have been used to quench light hydrogen cold fusion reactions:

  • Ceasing the generation of phonons or EM radiation that was used to start the reaction.
  • Lowering the temperature.
  • separating the reactants.
  • Adding deuterium.
  • Adding helium.

Since the reaction generates helium, the reaction will ultimately be quenched unless the helium buildup is removed in some way.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Graphane, Hydrogen and Nickel Papers to Read

The evolving story of graphene
Aaron Bostwicka, Thomas Seyllerb, Eli Rotenberga, Carsten Enderlein, Yuriy Dedkov, and Karsten Horn

The “carbon rush” to investigate the physics, chemistry, and materials science of graphene, the single sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice, has not yet abated, although the concept of “massless Dirac Fermions” has been preached in most major conferences, and even in the popular press. It is fair to say that the basic properties of graphene are quite well known, and as far as the electronic structure and the general surface science is concerned, the FHI – Erlangen – Berkeley collaboration has had some part in this, investigating in detail within the last two years the electronic structure (through photoelectron spectroscopy), growth morphology (through low energy electron microscopy1), and optimized layer preparation2. In cooperation with Roland Bennewitz’s group, the friction properties of graphene were addressed, and a connection with electron-phonon coupling was made3. Our interest has turned to the interaction between graphene and adsorbates, both from a “functionalization” point of view, and to study how defects affect its transport properties4. Hydrogen is a particularly important adsorbate since it converts the bonding in graphene from sp2 to sp3, creating a new material (“graphane”) in which the nature of the charge carriers changes completely and the conductivity is greatly reduced. The properties of interfaces between graphene and different substrates will continue to be addressed in order to find additional viable procedures for large-scale growth on insulating or electronically totally decoupled substrates. All of the work mentioned above has been carried out on graphene films prepared on silicon carbide, where it was demonstrated that large films with excellent structural perfection can be produced by an ex situ process under atmospheric pressure3.

Our interest has also turned to graphene films on metal surfaces, particularly ferromagnetic ones, since graphene layers may act as spin filters useful for applications in proposed spintronics devices. Among the possibilities are sandwich-like structures such as Ni/graphene/Ni, a system with a perfect lattice match. We have shown that the magnetic moment of nickel is partly transferred to the carbon atoms at the graphene/Ni interface where NEXAFS spectra have clarified the mechanism of the strong interaction between the Ni substrate and the graphene monolayer.

References 1. T. Ohta, F. E. Gabaly, A. Bostwick, J. L. McChesney, K. V. Emtsev, A. K. Schmid, Th. Seyller, K. Horn, and E. Rotenberg, New J. Phys. 10, 023034 (2007). 2. K. V. Emtsev, A. Bostwick, K. Horn, J Jobst, G. L. Kellogg, L. Ley, J. L. McChesney, T. Ohta, S. A. Reshanov, J. Röhrl, E. Rotenberg, A.K. Schmid, D. Waldmann, H. B. Weber, and Th. Seyller, Nature Materials 8, 203 (2009). 3. T. Filleter, J. L. McChesney, A. Bostwick, E. Rotenberg, K. V. Emtsev, Th. Seyller, K. Horn, and R. Bennewitz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 086102 (2009). 4. A. Bostwick, J. L. McChesney, K. Emtsev, Th. Seyller, K. Horn, S. D. Kevan, and E. Rotenberg, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 056404 (2009). a Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA b University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany 88

 

 

Annual Review of Materials Research

Vol. 36: 555-608 (Volume publication date August 2006)
First published online as a Review in Advance on April 24, 2006
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.matsci.36.090804.094451
A. Pundt and R. Kirchheim
Institut für Materialphysik, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany; email: ,
FULL-TEXT| PDFPDF (1192 KB)| Permissions
Web of Science ®: Related Records ®| Times Cited: 91
Cost: $20.00
------------------
Lattice strain effects in graphane and partially-hydrogenated graphene sheetsMorris, James R [ORNL]; Averill, Frank [ORNL]; He, Dr. Haiyan [University of Science and Technology of China]; Pan, Dr. Bicai [University of Science and Technology of China]; Cooper, Valentino R [ORNL]; Peng, L. [University of Tennessee]
2010-02-01
This paper presents a brief review of recent developments in the studies of fully hydrogenated graphene sheets, also known as graphane, and related initial results on partially hydrogenated structures. For the fully hydrogenated case, some important discrepancies, specifically whether or not the graphene sheet expands or contracts upon hydrogenation, exist between published first-principles calculations, and between calculations and experiment. The lattice change has important effects on partially hydrogenated structures. In addition, calculations of the interfacial energy must carefully account for the strain energy in neighboring regions: For sufficiently large regions between interfaces, defects at the interface which relieve the strain may be energetically preferable. Our preliminary first-principles calculations of ribbon structures, with interfaces between graphane and graphene regions, indicate that the interfaces do indeed have substantial misfit strains. Similarly, our tight-binding simulations show that at ambient temperatures, segments of graphene sheets may spontaneously combine with atomic hydrogen to form regions of graphane. Here, small amounts of chemisorbed hydrogen distort the graphene layer, due to the lattice misfit, and may induce the adsorption of more hydrogen atoms.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)



Lassila, D. H.; Birnbaum, H.K. (Univ. of Illinois, Urbana (USA))

The dependence of the fracture mode of hydrogen charged nickel deformed in tension at 77 K on grain boundary segregation has been studied. In the absence of any segregation the fracture mode at 77 K is ductile rupture. It is shown that if a sufficient quantity of hydrogen is segregated at grain boundaries by aging at various temperatures the fracture mode changes from a ductile shear rupture mode to an intergranular mode. The binding enthalpy of hydrogen to nickel grain boundaries is determined based on the dependence of the fracture mode on aging temperature and hydrogen concentration.
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tight-binding molecular dynamics study of the hydrogen-induced structural modifications in tetrahedral amorphous carbon
Ukpong, A. M.
2010-01-01
A tight-binding molecular dynamics study of the structural evolution in tetrahedral amorphous carbon networks under dynamic hydrogen saturation is presented. The incorporation of hydrogen results in higher degrees of network disorder in second-neighbour distances, and initiates orbital re-hybridization that relaxes network stress. Using the simulated structures, numerical tests are performed to verify the effectiveness of a new structural order parameter for tetrahedrally-bonded solids. It is found that the island of accessible information, within the order parameter field shows a linear dependence between the fluctuations in first- and second-nearest-neighbour distances at a preferred orientation of 36°. A comparison with similar studies on hydrogenated amorphous silicon suggests tha...
Electronic Table of Contents (ETOC) (United Kingdom)

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Coherence Domains - Water versus negatively charged protium in Ni

The dynamic phase transitions regions of hydrogen are known to by rather different from the static ones.  If Ni is a conductor for negatively charged protium or a meson built of light quarks then its coherence domain dynamics may be analagous to those in water.  I found this article. Note the low effective mass (meff = 13.6 eV).

Cell Size and Shape by Quantum Models of Water Coherent Domains Dynamics
Preoteasa, EA1,*; Apostol, MV2,*
* National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, RO-077125, Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
1 Correspondence: eugen_preoteasa@yahoo.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
2 Correspondence: apoma@theory.nipne.ro This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it entary characteristics of cells (with a few exceptions, of typically 1-100 µm diameter) which place them between the microscopic, quantum world and the macroscopic, classical one. A quantum mechanical model based on Planck’s energy quantization rule and statistics for the electron and proton transfer in cell respiration and oxidative phosphorilation succeeded to explain the empirical allometric relationship connecting size to metabolism [1]. By a different approach, making use of the the low effective mass (meff = 13.6 eV) of water coherence domains (CDs) from the QED theory [2, 3] we previously proposed the evaluation of cell size by models based on water CDs Bose-type condensation (supercoherence), on CD translation in a spherical well, and on an isotropic oscillator consisting of two interacting CDs [4]. Although the results matched to relatively small and medium-sized bacteria, our initial models showed limitations with respect to larger cells, and approximated the various shapes of cells only to a spherical one. Here we present new models aiming to deal with larger spherical cells and with disk-like and rod-like cells.
Because the values of the maximum radius a of a spherical cell estimated by the models of spherical well (1.02 µm) and of isotropic oscillator (0.99 µm) showed an excellent agreement, we looked after a combined model – an isotropic two CDs harmonic oscillator enclosed in a spherical box with impenetrable walls, larger than that required only to accommodate the oscillator. The centre of mass of the oscillator of mass 2meff performs an independent translation, while the oscillator vibrates as a reduced mass meff/2. In a perturbational treatment, the unperturbed energy levels of translation in the box are shifted by the harmonic potential which acts as a small perturbation. Assuming that the difference between the perturbed first two levels exceeds thermal energy, a maximum radius a of the spherical cell of 3.21 ?m at 310 K is obtained (volume 138.6 ?m3). The predicted size matches to larger prokaryotes like Myxobacteria (0.5 – 20 ?m3), Bacillus megaterium (7 – 38 ?m3) and Sphaerotilus natans (6 – 240 ?m3), and also to the smallest eukaryotic cells like yeast, S. cerevisiae (14 – 34 ?m3), unicellular fungi and algae (20 – 50 ?m3), and the erythrocyte (85 ?m3). The disk-like and rod-like cells have in common the axial symmetry, and both can be approached by the model of a cylindrical potential box with impenetrable walls. Along the axis the problem reduces to a linear gap with infinite walls and length a, of energy levels En. Around the axis, we were interested only by the radial part of the solution, given by Bessel functions Jl(r), with energy eigenvalues Elm. The total energy is Enlm = En + Elm with no immediate restriction to the values of l, m with respect to n. Because Jl(?ro) = 0, the maximum radius ro is related to the roots xlm of Jl(?r). In the case of the disk-like cell, we chose |110> (n = 1) as the ground state, and admit that the transition |110> --> |221> to a higher (n = 2) level is “biologically forbidden,” or thermally unfavourable (E221 – E110 ? 3/2 kBT). Using the x10 and x21 roots, we obtain for a thickness a = 1.15 µm, a radius ro ? 3.8 µm, while a human erythrocyte is 2 µm thick and has a 3.75 µm radius. For the rod-like cell, we postulate that biologically relevant transitions leave unchanged the axial translation energy En, ?n = 0. For n = 1, a thermally unfavourable, biologically forbidden transition |1lm> <--> |1lm’> allows estimation of radius ro. Choosing |102> ground state, and |102> --> |121> as a “life-forbidden” transition, and using x02 and x21 roots, a radius ro < 0.28 µm is obtained for a length a = 1,02 µm. The dimensions ro and a are roughly confirmed for typical and relatively small bacilli. The ratio 2ro /a = 0.54 of the cell shape fits very well, e.g.: Brucella melitensis (0.5-0.8), Francisella tularensis (0.3-0.7), Yersinia pestis (~ 0.5), E. coli (0.25-0.4). Comparable results are obtained with other couples of states, classified by an empirical “selection rule” for “biologically forbidden” transitions ?(l + m) = 0, ±1.
The results suggest that the dynamics of water CDs in the in the cell, which represent bound quantum systems, are an essential factor in determining the cellular size and shape. It is plausible that evolution selected the size and shape of cells such as to fit the form of potentials and of the CDs’ wavefunctions. However, one can hope that quantum mechanics contains a vast conceptual provision, which could be applied in further water CD models to account for other ultrastructural features of cells.
References
1. Demetrius, L, (2003). Physica A 322: 477.
2. Preparata, G, (1995). QED coherence in matter, World Scientific, Singapore-New Jersey.
3. Del Giudice, E, et al., (1986). Nucl. Phys. B275: 185; (1988) Phys. Rev. Lett. 61: 1085.
1. Preoteasa, EA; Apostol, MV, (2008). arXiv 0812.0275v2 Phys Bio Phys.


Abstract - selected
References - selected
Physics Reports
Volume 159, Issue 3, February 1988, Pages 99-199

doi:10.1016/0370-1573(88)90062-2 | How to Cite or Link Using DOI
Permissions & Reprints

Spectroscopy of mesons containing light quarks (u, d, s) or gluons
Bernd Diekmann
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
Available online 23 September 2002.

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the increase of experimental knowledge of mesons which are built by light quarks. This naturally includes also those mesonic states containing gluons and those with an exotic internal quark structure such as qq̄-qq̄.
The resulting mesonic “zoo” will be compared with predictions from actual phenomenological ansatzes: e.g. potential models, the bag model, and QCD sum rules, and also more general approaches such as QCD lattice gauge theories.
Present address: Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bonn, Fed. Rep. Germany.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Julkonserten 2010, Falun!


Julkonserten 2010, Falun!



Santa Lucia 2010, Falun




Falun Nya . Julkabarén 2010


SVT



Thursday, December 22, 2011

Dalkulla One More Time


Ariadne daughter of King Minos gave Theseus a clew to find his way back out of the maze.  Clue comes from clew which may come from Old English cleowen. Similarly, Kulla in Swedish as in Dalkulla may come from W.Gmc. *kleuwin. The derivation of Dalkulla is clear. It comes from the women singing a song about a “kulla”. I looked up Kulla in the Swedish dictionary and found that it is town in Pakistan. Everyone knows that Villa Villekulla is the house of Pippi Longstocking. The earlier words are conjectured to mean ball and come from the Indo-European word meaning “to Glue” with the rational that the G sound changed to K and they glued stuff together to get a ball.  No trace of Indo-European has ever been found, of course. However,  ancient texts do state that Kulla is responsible for the creation of the the bricks used to restore temples. The clew would not helped Theseus much if the threads had been glued together. Also Dalkulla in Swedish means Dalecarlian woman in English.  It is easier to relate a ball of thread to women and the story of the Minotaur than a ball or glue.  

A google search gave me this hokum: ”jama kulla  Jama kana yokum”.  Our cats played with a ball of yarn, but I do not know about other cats. Well maybe I haven't a clue what "clew" means, but still its meaning seams obvious to me. How about you? Am I the only one that notices that all the Dalkullor that come here have a special, magical bracelet inscribed with that word," DALKULLA"?  Also, the famous ones like Susanna and Jenny have them.
.

Dalkulla
Från Wikipedia
Kulla är en populär benämning på en kvinna eller flicka från Dalarna. Den manliga motsvarigheten till benämningen är mas.
Ordet kulla kan härledas från kula ett slags sång som tidigare var vanligt bland kvinnorna i Dalarna. När kvinnorna var ensamma med djuren vid fäbodvallarna, sjöng (kulade) de dels för att kommunicera med de andra kvinnorna vid närliggande fäbodar och dels för att hålla rovdjur borta.
Ordet dalkulla är en tautologi eftersom kullor bara finns i Dalarna.


Kranskulla

Från Wikipedia

Kranskulla (efter kulla), är en kvinnlig utdelare av segerkrans i herrklassen i sporttävlingar, till exempelVasaloppet. Den manliga motsvarigheten kallas kransmas. I vasaloppet är det kranskullan som bestämmer om det blir en traditionell målgång med en bekransad segrare eller om vinnaren skall "kransas" efter slutspurten.



Kulla

Från Wikipedia

Kulla är ett vanligt ortnamn både i Sverige och i Finland.

The Old Language



Dansaðu Vindur

tBeware, this translation is by me and I don't speak the language.)

Kuldinn, hann kemur um jólin = Cold, it comes at Christmas
med kolsvarta skugga.= with shadows black as coal.
Krakkarnir kúra í skjóli = Cuddle the kids in the shelter
hjá kerti í glugga. = of a candle in the window.

Ref 1:
Vindur, já dansaðu vindur, = Wind, yes, dance wind
er vetur og kuldi gefa nýjan þrótt. = It’s winter and cold giving new vigor.
Vindur, já dansaðu vindur, = Wind, yes, dance wind
vertu á sveim' um kalda jólanótt. = spread the cold Christmas night.

Núna nístir í snjónum = Now, pierce through the snow by
um nóttina svörtu,= the black of night,
nærast á takti og tónum = feeding the rhythm and tones
titrandi hjörtu. = of a quivering heart.

Ref. 2
Vindur, já dansaðu vindur, = Wind, yes, dance wind!
Að vetri fá börn að finna húsaskjól. = In winter, making children to find shelter.
Vindur, já dansaðu vindur, = Wind, yes, dance wind!
Veturinn færir bœrnum heilög jól. = The winter brings the children Your holy Christmas.

Úti fær vindur að valda = Outside the wind generates
voldugum tónum. = powerful tones.
Núna nötrar af kulda = Now, the night trembles of cold
nóttin í snjónum. = in the snow.


Swedish

 English

Monday, December 19, 2011

My Joke for Today


Wales is to Welsh as Sumer is to Sumerian
Cymry is the name of Wales in Welsh and Ki.EN.GI is the name of Sumer in Sumerian.
Cymraeg is to Welsh as Ki.EN.GI(R) is to Sumarian.
The Akkadians gave Ki.EN.GI the name Shumeru from which we get Sumer, but no one knows why since it is not a word in their language either.
Like the name KMT for Egypt, there are many imaginative definitions. The only obvious thing is that all these languages arose from a common source.
As verb, KA means to wish or desire.  As a noun, it means spirit. Then, came the Tower of Babel and KA means whatever you wish (or KA) it to.  Some say horse or land, while others say what? Hehe!

If you do no think that is funny, then consider the irony of Obama shutting down the SPAWAR Cold Fusion research which costs pennies while spending close to a trillion dollars by now on a Hot Fusion Reactors which never produce any excess energy. 

Experimental Casimir Effect

Nature Abstract

Observation of the dynamical Casimir effect in a superconducting circuit

Nature
 
479,
 
376–379
 
(17 November 2011)
 
doi:10.1038/nature10561
Received
 
 
Accepted
 
 
Published online
 
One of the most surprising predictions of modern quantum theory is that the vacuum of space is not empty. In fact, quantum theory predicts that it teems with virtual particles flitting in and out of existence. Although initially a curiosity, it was quickly realized that these vacuum fluctuations had measurable consequences—for instance, producing the Lamb shift1 of atomic spectra and modifying the magnetic moment of the electron2. This type of renormalization due to vacuum fluctuations is now central to our understanding of nature. However, these effects provide indirect evidence for the existence of vacuum fluctuations. From early on, it was discussed whether it might be possible to more directly observe the virtual particles that compose the quantum vacuum. Forty years ago, it was suggested3 that a mirror undergoing relativistic motion could convert virtual photons into directly observable real photons. The phenomenon, later termed the dynamical Casimir effect45, has not been demonstrated previously. Here we observe the dynamical Casimir effect in a superconducting circuit consisting of a coplanar transmission line with a tunable electrical length. The rate of change of the electrical length can be made very fast (a substantial fraction of the speed of light) by modulating the inductance of a superconducting quantum interference device at high frequencies (>10 gigahertz). In addition to observing the creation of real photons, we detect two-mode squeezing in the emitted radiation, which is a signature of the quantum character of the generation process.