POLARON INDUCED RESONANCE MECHANISMS OF DEUTERIUM-LITHIUM FUSION IN A CRYSTALLINE PALLADIUM LATTICE

CONVENTIONAL FUSION PROCESSES ARE NOT EXPECTED TO ACHIEVE BREAK-EVEN WITHIN THE NEXT DECADE. COLD FUSION IS AN EXCITING OPTION, SINCE IT OFFERS AN INEXPENSIVE ALTERNATIVE AND SOME CLAIM BREAK-EVEN HAS ALREADY BEEN ACHIEVED. HOWEVER, TO DAT, NO IN-DEPTH THEORETICAL STUDY OF COLD FUSION HAS BEEN CONDUCTED. LOW NEUTRON FLUX AND THE USE OF LITHIUM HYDROXIDE AS AN ELECTROLYTE IN THE FUSION CELLS USED BY FLEISCHMAN AND PONS INDICATES THAT DEUTERIUM-LITHIUM (D-LI) FUSION COULD BE OCCURRING IN THEIR EXPERIMENTS. ELECTRONS WITH ENHANCED MASS EXIST IN METALLIC CRYSTALLINE LATTICES SUCH AS PALLADIUM (PD). SIMILARLY, MUONS WHICHARE EQUIVALENT TO HEAVY ELECTRONS, ARE KNOWN TO CATALYZE FUSION REACTIONS. RESONANCE FUSION MECHANISMS ARE TWO ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE FASTER THAN NON-RESONANT MECHANISMS IN MUON CATALYZED FUSION EXPERIMENTS. THE APPROACH PROPOSED IN THIS THEORETICAL STUDY IS TO INVESTIGATE THE ACTUAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN COLD AND MUON CATALYZED FUSIONS. PHASE I OBJECTIVES INCLUDE MODELING OF ION DIFFUSION AND ABSORPTION IN PD, DETERMINATION OF ION DIFFUSION AND ABSORPTION IN PD, IDENTIFICATION OF DEUTERIUM-LITHIUM FUSION MECHANISMS AND DLI ION FORMATION, AND ANALYSIS OF DEUTERIUM-LITHIUM FUSION IN THE PALLADIUM CRYSTALLINE LATTICE. SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE PROGRAM WOULD RESULT IN A THEORY OF D-LI FUSION THAT WOULD LEAD TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLD FUSION AS A SOURCE OF PROPULSION. THE PROGRAM INNOVATION IN THE USE OF RESONANCE MECHANISMS IN COLD FUSION THEORY.