quantum entanglement and low-energy nuclear fusion

[jelleboersma]

Perhaps the following theoretical idea related to how cold fusion may occur is highly naive, but since I could not find any documentation discussing this the only way to find out is to bring it up. The question is whether low-temperature nuclear fusion could be facilitated by quantum-entanglement of two deuterium nuclei with the external degrees of freedom (eg the phonons in a metal-lattice in which the D-nuclei are dissolved). The idea is that if two D-nuclei are entangled with independent exterior degrees of freedom then the density matrix describing the subsystem of two D-nuclei can be diagonal (this happens when we take the trace over the independent exterior states which are entangled with the two D-nuclei) and therefore the interaction hamiltonian vanishes even when the two nuclei have overlapping wave-functions in space and time. In the case where the two states described by the density matrix are mutually exclusive in a classical sense (e.g., the states corresponding to finding the first D-nucleus xor the second D-nucleus in the same location) then the diagonal elements of the density matrix are normally interpreted as the probability of finding the first or the second D-nucleus if a measurement where performed (but not both). Now the vanishing of an interaction Hamiltonian suggests that the electrostatic repulsion between two D-nuclei could be temporarily neutralized, along with the weak and the strong interactions. For two decohered nuclei at the same location it would take recoherence (through alignment of the exterior degrees of freedom with which the two nuclei are entangled) to restore the interactions. If the two nuclei recohere with sufficient overlap so that the strong attraction exceeds the electrostatic repulsion then fusion may occur. In a nutshell, the idea is whether decoherence followed by the spatial overlapping of the wave-functions of two D-nuclei followed by recoherence could produce nuclear fusion at low temperatures. I am not producing the math here, but I
could work it out more concretely if anyone is interested.

Related to the topic of alternative fusion techniques,
while I am agnostic about whether any cold-fusion
experiments will hold up, I feel that the discussion on cold
fusion (which unfortunately is almost exclusively dedicated to discussing experiments without much theory behind it)
has been set back enormously by the overselling of various more or less speculative results, while even when some of the experiments hold up, then improving the energy yield from picowatts to gigawatts may not be any easier for cold fusion than it is for hot fusion.

[dleviwing]

Jelle;
If you google “fluidic matter” you may find this helpful in your research. The cold fusion by entanglement I suspect would involve placing all the nuclei in identical quantum states. The problem lies in the fact that all these methods result in the need to put more energy into the process than what can be drawn from it. The idea of cold fusion is to produce a clean abundant energy source, not to find new ways to use more energy.

[jelleboersma]

Hi. To clarify, I am not interested in any practical application for cold fusion, but if someone could prove that it requires more energy to be added than can be extracted, then that would certainly require a level of theoretical understanding which I am interested in. As I tried to explain I feel that most of the debate on alternative fusion techniques has started to resemble early medieval alchemy by skipping the work on a rigorous theory and instead resorting to an empirical trial and error approach combined with hyped up expectations about practical use.
So I am not hoping that I found the philosophers-stone here or the solution to anything besides this theoretical question.
Thanks for the fluidic matter tip. I do however nowhere require
that all or most of the deuterons are condensed in the same state. Instead I am only assuming that two deuterons have overlapping decohered wavefunctions and then recohere due
to the dynamics of the exterior degrees of freedom with which the nuclei are entangled.