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Polarizing virtual photons to make fusion easier?

Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 12:10 am
by Krishan Bansal
So, this is probably incredibly foolish, outlandish, etc but I figure I'd post it anyways. Basically I was thinking about how the Deuterium nuclei repel each other and how they do this by exchanging virtual photons. After doing some research I came to the conclusion that virtual photons can indeed be polarized (I think when doing the calculations, one sums over the polarizations of the exchanged photons to obtain the total amplitude) and therefore can be blocked by using a polarizer in the opposite "direction". By this logic would it be super easy to do fusion by figuring out the polarization states of exchanged photons between nuclei, and then using some sort of sunglasses style direction polarizer to negate the repulsive force? If this was possible then wouldn't a small amount of electric potential be required to fuse which would make such a theoretical fusor incredibly efficient? Also on the same thread, would it also be better to use magnets similar to a synchrotron to keep the particles of D2 on the right path when fusing and having the photon polarization state detected? I know this sounds pretty insane, and I'm probably missing something really simple, but just my 2 rupees.

Re: Polarizing virtual photons to make fusion easier?

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 1:15 pm
by Krishan Bansal
Is anyone going to reply to this? I really need the help.

Re: Polarizing virtual photons to make fusion easier?

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 2:25 pm
by Chris Bradley
Krishan Bansal wrote: Basically I was thinking about how the Deuterium nuclei repel each other and how they do this by exchanging virtual photons.
D+D->T+p & 3He+n fusions are a 'strong interaction' (the strong nuclear force) and is therefore mediated by gluons not photons.

Only the relatively rare D+D->4He=hv is mediated by photons. But still the nucleii need to come within the requisite distance for the nucleii to 'tunnel' through each other's electrostatic barriers and to do this they need to be excited to several 10's of keV.

Re: Polarizing virtual photons to make fusion easier?

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 2:41 pm
by Krishan Bansal
Interesting, I thought fusion reactions were dominated by electrostatic force (IE exchange photons) until the strong interaction became attractive at .5 femtometers. So basically the solution I proposed wouldn't do much? What would make some fusions based on electrostatic interaction and others by strong force interactions? I know gluons have 2 polarization states even though they're spin-1 particles, I wonder if a similar principle can apply to exchange gluons when they are repelling at greater distances? Again, these are probably really stupid statements, sorry.

Re: Polarizing virtual photons to make fusion easier?

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 3:21 pm
by Chris Bradley
Yes, in the 'classic' description, the repulsing electrostatic force prevents the nucleii from fusing until they are close enough that the strong interaction can take over and lead to a fusion event. The nucleii never have enough energy to overcome the electrostatic barrier completely, they have to 'burrow' their way through it and this is a probabilistic process. Statistically speaking, none get through. In practice, a minuscule fraction manage it. Fusion is a very rare outcome for the interaction between two nucleii.

Further questions will generally lead to speculations as there is little, if any, extant established knowledge on how to manipulate fusion outcomes. It is for you to create your hypothesis and then test it, as no-one else will do it for you.

Re: Polarizing virtual photons to make fusion easier?

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 3:51 pm
by Krishan Bansal
By "burrowing through" are you referring to quantum tunneling? Also, it would be impossible for a 16 year with zero background in physics and barely $1000 to test these ideas.

Re: Polarizing virtual photons to make fusion easier?

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 6:25 pm
by Chris Bradley
Yes, quantum tunnelling.
it would be impossible for a 16 year with zero background in physics and barely $1000 to test these ideas.
If you believe it is impossible for you, then you are right.

Re: Polarizing virtual photons to make fusion easier?

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 9:06 pm
by Krishan Bansal
Well I never really intended on doing it, just want to see if my theory is at all reasonable, and if it makes sense at all (still not sure about that by the way).