DPF and muon catalysis

[Johan S Sosa]

Has anyone simulated what would happen? If you fire a stream of muons at a DPF plasmoid .. assuming you optimally timed it (I am guessing you would need to do it right before the plasmoid forms rather that during/after .. but this can be checked out) .. would the high temperature and boron (which is a heavy nucleus) itself negate the catalytic effect (I doubt it since the muon catalyzed fusion experiments have shown the muon can catalyze up to 300 d-t nuclei to fuse so taht must happen even after the temperature increases)?

Maybe the guys at RIKEN RAL can aim their muon beam at an LPP type DPF device and see what happens.

Catalyzing DPF with muons will increase the capital cost, but it might increase the yield so it may be worth it. Has anyone tried it, or does the math rule it out?

[jamesr]

The maths rule it out. It will always take way more energy to generate muons than any benefit they give.

I guess a very short burst to initiate the ignition of the plasmoid(s) may be a possibility, but then if you’re close enough to ignition for this to help, there will be far easier ways to tip it over the threshold.

[Johan S Sosa]

jamesr wrote: The maths rule it out. It will always take way more energy to generate muons than any benefit they give.

Thanks for your reply …
That sounds like there is an upper limit on the number of p-b11 nuclei that a muon can catalyze at a given (or any) temperature. Where can I find the formula? Since the boron nuclei are heavier I would expect that the number of nuclei that fuse would be a lot higher than the 300+ seen for d-t.

[TimS]

I’m not sure I remember right, but doesn’t muon catalyzed fusion require H-H, e.g. DT?

Also, I thought it only worked at a lower temp where there was no ionization, e.g. not in a plasma, and the muon works by replacing the electron on one of the H in order to shield the proton from the coloumb barrier of the other H. Since DPF is very high temp, would it be applicable here at all? How is this effected by the muon binding energy in the p-muon atom?

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