No Arabic abstract
An attempt is made to explain the recently reported occurrence of ultradense deuterium as an isothermal transition of Rydberg matter into a high density phase by quantum mechanical exchange forces. It is conjectured that the transition is made possible by the formation of vortices in a Cooper pair electron fluid, separating the electrons from the deuterons, with the deuterons undergoing Bose-Einstein condensation in the core of the vortices. If such a state of deuterium should exist at the reported density of about 100,000 g/cm3, it would greatly facility the ignition of a thermonuclear detonation wave in pure deuterium, by placing the deuterium in a thin disc, to be ignited by a pulsed ultrafast laser or particle beam of modest energy.
If we have a particle immersed in a field of random forces, each interaction of the particle with the field can enlarge or diminish its kinetic energy. In this work is shown that in general, for any field of random force with uniform distribution of directions, the probability to gain kinetic energy is larger that the probability to lose it. Therefore, if the particle is submitted to a great number of interactions with the force stochastic field, the final result will be that the particle will gain energy. The probability to gain energy in each interaction is Pg=1/2 (1+T/(2Po)), where T is the impulse given by the field and Po is the momentum of the particle before the interaction. The probability to lose energy in each interaction is Pl=1/2 (1-T/(2Po)).
A deuterium-tritium (DT) nuclear pulse propulsion concept for fast interplanetary transport is proposed utilizing almost all the energy for thrust and without the need for a large radiator: 1. By letting the thermonuclear micro-explosion take place in the center of a liquid hydrogen sphere with the radius of the sphere large enough to slow down and absorb the neutrons of the DT fusion reaction, heating the hydrogen to a fully ionized plasma at a temperature of ~ 105 K. 2. By using the entire spacecraft as a magnetically insulated gigavolt capacitor, igniting the DT micro-explosion with an intense GeV ion beam discharging the gigavolt capacitor, possible if the space craft has the topology of a torus.
We revisit the assumption that reactors based on deuterium-deuterium (D-D) fusion processes have to be necessarily developed after the successful completion of experiments and demonstrations for deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reactors. Two possible mechanisms for enhancing the reactivity are discussed. Hard tails in the energy distribution of the nuclei, through the so-called kappa-distribution, allow to boost the number of energetic nuclei available for fusion reactions. At higher temperatures than usually considered in D-T plasmas, vacuum polarization effects from real $e^+e^-$ and $mu^+mu^-$ pairs may provide further speed-up due to their contribution to screening of the Coulomb barrier. Furthermore, the energy collection system can benefit from the absence of the lithium blanket, both in simplicity and compactness. The usual thermal cycle can be bypassed with comparable efficiency levels using hadronic calorimetry and third-generation photovoltaic cells, possibly allowing to extend the use of fusion reactors to broader contexts, most notably maritime transport.
We present new investigation of the Lamb shift (2P_{1/2}-2S_{1/2}) in muonic deuterium (mu d) atom using the three-dimensional quasipotential method in quantum electrodynamics. The vacuum polarization, nuclear structure and recoil effects are calculated with the account of contributions of orders alpha^3, alpha^4, alpha^5 and alpha^6. The results are compared with earlier performed calculations. The obtained numerical value of the Lamb shift 202.4139 meV can be considered as a reliable estimate for the comparison with forthcoming experimental data.
We present new upper and lower bounds to the primordial abundances of deuterium and helium-3 based on observational data from the solar system and the interstellar medium. Independent of any model for the primordial production of the elements we find (at the 95% C.L.): $1.5 times 10^{-5} le (D/H)_P le 10.0 times 10^{-5}$ and $(^3He/H)_P le 2.6times 10^{-5}$. When combined with the predictions of standard big bang nucleosynthesis, these constraints lead to a 95% C.L. bound on the primordial abundance of deuterium: $(D/H)_{best} = (3.5^{+2.7}_{-1.8})times 10^{-5}$. Measurements of deuterium absorption in the spectra of high redshift QSOs will directly test this prediction. The implications of this prediction for the primordial abundances of helium-4 and lithium-7 are discussed, as well as those for the universal density of baryons.