Brian Ahern talk on Energy Localization and Nanomagnetism as explanation for LENR/Cold Fusion

Here were the 16 pages of slides for the talk that Brian Ahern was going to give at Citi5 until he cancelled.

I had already presented the energy localization part of Brian Ahern’s talk, which basically summed up to there is a lot of evidence to support the case that 3-12 nanometer sizes have special properties that amplify the physical effects. If a rope or hose is too long you cannot make it behave like skipping rope with one big wave. If the rope is too long then the energy dies out.

What is added is that magnetism also has amplified effects at the 3 to 12 nanometer size range and that amplified nanomagnetism is interacting to generate the extra energy of what is called cold fusion /LENR (low energy nuclear reactions).

There are peer reviewed papers (in journal Nature and Science) that Ahern cites as showing that other respected researchers have detected and investigated special effects of nanomagnetism at 3 to 12 nanometers.

Nature – Magnetic vortex core reversal by excitation with short bursts of an alternating field

Magnetic vortex core reversal by excitation with short bursts of an alternating field

The vortex state, characterized by a curling magnetization, is one of the equilibrium configurations of soft magnetic materials and occurs in thin ferromagnetic square and disk-shaped elements of micrometre size and below. The interplay between the magnetostatic and the exchange energy favours an in-plane, closed flux domain structure. This curling magnetization turns out of the plane at the centre of the vortex structure, in an area with a radius of about 10 nanometres—the vortex core. The vortex state has a specific excitation mode: the in-plane gyration of the vortex structure about its equilibrium position. The sense of gyration is determined by the vortex core polarization. Here we report on the controlled manipulation of the vortex core polarization by excitation with small bursts of an alternating magnetic field. The vortex motion was imaged by time-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy. We demonstrate that the sense of gyration of the vortex structure can be reversed by applying short bursts of the sinusoidal excitation field with amplitude of about 1.5 mT. This reversal unambiguously indicates a switching of the out-of-plane core polarization. The observed switching mechanism, which can be understood in the framework of micromagnetic theory, gives insights into basic magnetization dynamics and their possible application in data storage.

The Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) samples and stripline structure were grown on a thin Si3N4 membrane (100nm in thickness) with a transmission of 80% for photon energies of about 800 eV. They were patterned by e-beam lithography on to a Cu stripline 10 mm wide and 150nm thick. The whole structure was capped with a 2-nm Al protective coating. The stripline generates a magnetic field in the plane of the sample perpendicular to the current direction.

A fast electronic pulse generator in combination with a broadband mixer was used to modulate the RF power to the sample. When no pulses are applied to the mixer, a small fraction of the input power reaches the sample and generates an alternating magnetic field with an amplitude of 0.1 mT. This is sufficient to induce a stable gyrotropic motion, observable with the microscope, and to deduce the sense of the vortex motion without inducing any vortex core switching. Superimposed on this background field, a single burst with amplitudes between 0.5 and 3mT and lengths between 4 and 200 ns could be delivered to the sample. The phase relation between the burst and the RF signal can be adjusted by synchronizing the pulse generator with the RF signal.

Nature- Magnetic Monopoles in Spin Ice (5 pages)

Magnetic monopoles in spin ice

Electrically charged particles, such as the electron, are ubiquitous. In contrast, no elementary particles with a net magnetic charge have ever been observed, despite intensive and prolonged searches (see ref. 1 for example). We pursue an alternative strategy, namely that of realizing them not as elementary but rather as emergent particles—that is, as manifestations of the correlations present in a strongly interacting many-body system. The most prominent examples of emergent quasiparticles are the ones with fractional electric charge e / 3 in quantum Hall physics. Here we propose that magnetic monopoles emerge in a class of exotic magnets known collectively as spin ice: the dipole moment of the underlying electronic degrees of freedom fractionalises into monopoles. This would account for a mysterious phase transition observed experimentally in spin ice in a magnetic field which is a liquid–gas transition of the magnetic monopoles. These monopoles can also be detected by other means, for example, in an experiment modelled after the Stanford magnetic monopole search.

Science – Dirac Strings and Magnetic Monopoles in the Spin Ice Dy2Ti2O7

Sources of magnetic fields—magnetic monopoles—have so far proven elusive as elementary particles. Condensed-matter physicists have recently proposed several scenarios of emergent quasiparticles resembling monopoles. A particularly simple proposition pertains to spin ice on the highly frustrated pyrochlore lattice. The spin-ice state is argued to be well described by networks of aligned dipoles resembling solenoidal tubes—classical, and observable, versions of a Dirac string. Where these tubes end, the resulting defects look like magnetic monopoles. We demonstrated, by diffuse neutron scattering, the presence of such strings in the spin ice dysprosium titanate (Dy2Ti2O7). This is achieved by applying a symmetry-breaking magnetic field with which we can manipulate the density and orientation of the strings. In turn, heat capacity is described by a gas of magnetic monopoles interacting via a magnetic Coulomb interaction.

Notes of the Talk from the Powerpoint

Powerpoint slides

From the e-catsite

01) Nature has evolved in a narrow size regime below 12 nanometers to take maximal advantage of an energy exchange mechanism that is not available at larger dimensions.

02) The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics invariably leads to an increase in entropy and order moves towards disorder. That is not true for biological systems. Why not?

03) The mass of the nuclei are thousands of times more massive than the electrons, so their motions can be treated separately in most cases. As heat is added the vibrational amplitude increases slightly. The amplitude of vibration increases only a little.

04) As you can see these potential wells are very broad and shallow. They are no longer simple parabolas . As a result the nuclei move over much larger distances. These kinds of potential wells define all superconductors including PdD, PdH, NiH etc. The hydrogen nuclei undergo massive nonlinear oscillations while the metal lattice undergoes small amplitude, high frequency oscillations.

05) The white puck at the bottom is a high temperature superconductor. This photo was taken in 1987. The nuclei in superconductors do not vibrate like most solids They undergo very large amplitude oscillations. Levitating a magnet above the materials is simply the easiest method for verifying the superconducting state. These materials were highly touted in 1987, but I do not know of a single commercial product that uses them.

06) In 1953 Enrico Fermi was simply testing out the operation of one of the country’s first computers called MAINIC I. They gave it a simple mathematical-Physics problem of finding the average energy of a one-dimensional array of harmonic oscillators. With their simple linear assumptions each of the masses acquired roughly the same amount of vibrational energy. This was the anticipated result and it verified one of Thermodynamics basic tenets, The Equipartition of Energy.

07 Fermi’s colleague, Stanislau Ulam, decided to change the problem from simple harmonic motion by adding another term to the force equation. This made the problem nonlinear and the outcome was quite different. After thousands of periods of oscillation, they found that the vibrational energy was not equally shared. On the contrary, it was localized and focused to a small number of elements. The red arrow denotes locatios where the masses are ‘vibrationally cold’. These regions extract heat from the environment and ‘up-pump it’ to feed the large amplitude regions. This is a local reversal of the 2cd Law, not a global reversal.

08) These two conditions are both necessary and sufficient. The elements can be atoms, BBs or hockey pucks The number of elements cannot be too large or too small. This is an ‘Intermediate Size Effect’. It is actually just a feedback effect that is not obvious beforehand.

09) Here is the cover story for Nature in August 1996. A Petrie dish full of BBs was electrostatically charged and the vibrational modes amplified in specific and repeatable locations. There was a countable number of BBs and the electrostatic charge provided some weak nonlinear coupling. There was no localization without the electrostatic charging. These large vibrational modes act like very hot spots and catalyze chemical reactions when the BBs are atoms.

10) All nanoparticles in this size regime will display energy localized vibrational modes. They will be able to catalyze energy transfers as if they were very hot, localized energy reservoirs. All enzymes have at least one of their dimensions in this size regime so they can efficiently carry out the building of ordered structures out of random chemical environments.

11) Enzymes for example are known as Nature’s catalysts. They accomplish their tasks with high efficiency and high specificity through this little known mechanism, Energy Llocalization.

12) Fireflies are an excellent example of highly efficient energy transfer at the nanoscale. The Luciferase enzyme converts ATP into visible light with nearly 100% efficiency. Similarly, Nature’s solar cell is Photosynthesis where visible light is converted into ordered structures and stored chemical energy. All the important processes happen at the magic size regime.

13) In conclusion, perhaps the most important use for Energy Localization will be in the field of Lattice Assisted Nuclear Energy. We have already noted that superconductors have enormous anharmonic vibrational modes. Palladium hydride is a superconducting system that already has enormous vibrational modes for the hydrogen isotopes. By processing palladium powders in the 4-10 nm size regime produce enormous anharmonic vibrational modes of the palladium lattice that get superimposed on the anharmonic hydrogen vibrations leading to a amplification of the hydrogen modes. Energy localization is superimposed over the already delocalized motion of this superconducting system. Cold Fusion in bulk, macroscopic systems is controlled by the overlap of the vibrational modes of the dissolved deuterium nuclei. This effect is barely observable, but it is readily available in the magic size regime! Where the deuterium nuclei have their vibrational modes amplified by Energy Localization.

14) Nobody paid attention to the Arata claims, because Takahashi presented right after him and showed a null result. Over three weeks of e-mails I convinced him to process in the 3 – 12nm range and he got excess energy on the first attempt. When the metal lattice is this small it too udergoes large amplitude anharmonic oscillations. This in turn, causes a further amplification of the hydrogen modes to a chaotic condition. This introduces new possibilities for energetic reactions that are as yet undetermined.

15) All are using nanoscale magnetic powders

16) In a similar fashion to hydrogen in nanoparticles where the anharmonic modes were amplified. The magnetic properties are magnified by the nonlinear processes developed in the 3-12nm ferrite particles.