Friday 27 November 2009

The Proton-Proton Process

Fusion in the Sun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FusionintheSun.svg


In nuclear fusion two atoms come together to form one. This reaction releases vast energy. In a fusion reactor hydrogen atoms come together to form helium atoms and neutrons along with huge amounts of energy. I found a great little site "The Astrophysics Spectator" and an article they wrote on hydrogen fusion. It has really helped me to get to grips with the chain of events in a fusion reaction. I have included, and made comments on, some of the text from the article, below:
http://www.astrophysicsspectator.com/topics/stars/FusionHydrogen.html

"The fusion of hydrogen into helium takes place through a somewhat complex network of reactions involving many isotopes that are intermediate in weight between hydrogen and helium and involving several elements that are heavier than helium. When one examines these numerous reactions, however, one finds that the conversion of hydrogen into helium predominately follows one of five paths.

The five different fusion paths can be divided into two sets of processes: the Proton-Proton (PP) process, which depends only on the amount of hydrogen and helium in the star, and the Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen (CNO) process, which depends on the amount of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in addition to the amount of hydrogen and helium in the star

There are three branches to the PP process of convert hydrogen (H1) into helium (He4). The first branch does the conversion without creating any nuclei heavier than helium. The remaining two branches go through a step that creates beryllium.

The first PP branch takes hydrogen to deuterium (H2) to helium-3 (He3) to helium-4 (He4). In a chemistry-style notation with γ representing the gamma-ray and ν representing the electron neutrino, the fusion chain is as follows:

H1 + H1 → H2 + e+ + ν

H2 + H1 → He3 + γ

He3 + He3 → He4 + 2 H1

If I may, I'd like to try and explain the sequence of the first branch in terms of the new model to see where it takes us.

H1 + H1 → H2 + e+ + v : A hydrogen ion is a cyclone with a mass of 1, while deuterium is also a cyclone but with a mass of 2. In theory, what we could be seeing is two smaller cyclones being brought together to create one big cyclone. This reaction creates energy in the form of a positron and electron neutrino.

"The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. The positron has an electric charge of +1, a spin of 1⁄2, and the same mass as an electron. When a low-energy positron collides with a low-energy electron, annihilation occurs, resulting in the production of two or more gamma ray photons."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positrons


If I am to understand a positron as the counterpart to an electrion, and that perhaps it's more correct to say that the electrion has an excess of electric charge, then this means that the positron will be seen to have somekind of deficit in electric charge. In bringing the positron and the electron together, they cancel one another out, and generate waves in the aether field which we see as EMR. This reaction gently reminds me of the way bubbles collapse in cavitation.

"Neutrinos (meaning "small neutral one")... are elementary particles that often travel close to the speed of light, are electrically neutral, are able to pass through ordinary matter almost undisturbed and are thus extremely difficult to detect.

Electron neutrinos (or antineutrinos) are generated whenever neutrons change into protons (or protons into neutrons), the two forms of beta decay.

Most neutrinos passing through the Earth emanate from the Sun, and more than 50 trillion solar electron neutrinos pass through the human body every second."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino


The neutrino just screams that it is a particle of the aether. Is the appearance of a neutrino a display of longitudinal waves in the aether?

H2 + H1 → He3 + γ : This next step sees deuterium being added to a hydrogen ion to give us helium-3 and gamma radiation. That is, one big cyclone with a mass of 2, being added to a smaller cyclone with a mass of 1, which is then converted into a pair of cyclones - each cyclone with the new mass of 1.5 , giving a cyclone-pair a combined mass of 3 . No mass has been lost in the conversion, so the only energy that we see are the EMR waves in the aether.

He3 + He3 → He4 + 2 H1 : Okay, now we have one cyclone-pair, being introduced to another cyclone-pair. Effectively, we have four cyclones each with a mass of 1.5, that come together to produce 2 helium donutoms, and 2 hydrogen ions. In the reaction we see no mass being lost, but we see no energy being released either.

"The second and third branches of the PP chain involve the creation of beryllium-7 (Be7) and its subsequent destruction. The second branch splits from the first branch after the creation of helium-3. Helium-3 combines with helium-4 to create beryllium-7. Beryllium-7 combines with a free electron to give lithium-7 (Li7). Lithium-7 combines with hydrogen to give two helium-4 nuclei, returning the helium atom destroyed at the beginning of the offshoot.

He3 + He4 → Be7 + γ

Be7 + e- → Li7 + ν

Li7 + H1 → He4 + He4

Once again, I'd like to walk through the reaction in terms of the new model.

He3 + He4 → Be7 + γ : A cyclone-pair (He3) reacts with 2 helium donutoms to give us beryllium-7 and the release of gamma rays. What we have is a overall structure made out of 4 cyclones and 2 anticyclones. To help me write these structures down as formulas, I use a figure 6 to represent a cyclone, and the figure 9 to represent an anticyclone. This part of the formula could then be seen as :

66 + 6969 → 696966 + γ

Be7 + e- → Li7 + ν : By adding an electrion we get lithium-7, and the release of a neutrino. I think that an electrion is an anticyclone. Figuratively, this formula might look something like:

696966 + 9 → 6696969 + ν

As a structure, lithium-7 appears to be made of 3 donutoms which are joined by a cyclone out on its limb.

Li7 + H1 → He4 + He4 : This surprised me a little bit, because in order to generate 4 donutoms, I expected to find that an electrion was being added to lithium-7, and this does not appear to be the case. Instead, what we have is a hydrogen ion being added:

6696969 + 6 → 6969 + 6969

"The third branch splits from the second branch after the creation of beryllium-7. In it, beryllium-7 combines with hydrogen to become boron-8 (B8). Boron-8 is unstable and decays into beryllium-8 (Be8), which rapidly decays into two helium nuclei.

Be7 + H1 → B8 + γ

B8 → Be8 + e+ + ν

Be8 → 2 He4

This third branch appears to be giving us more of a glimpse into what happens when a cyclone joins a cyclone pair. It might help shed some light on how cyclonic proton structures are converted into anticyclonic electrion structures.

Be7 + H1 → B8 + γ : Can be shown as:

696966 + 6 → 6969666 + γ

It's as if we have a structure with 2 donutoms which are accompanied by a cyclone-pair. This cyclone pair has a combined mass of 3 (just like helium-3), and it has been joined by one more cyclone, so it appears that we now have a structure made out of 3 cyclones. In the reaction, a wave is made in the aether which we see as gamma radiation.

B8 → Be8 + e+ + ν : We are now seeing the release of a positron and a neutrino from boron-8, to give us beryllium-8. I find the 3 cyclone structure of boron-8 extremely conspicious. It's as if the hydrogen ion which joins beryllium-7, is actively knocking something out of the way - something in the shape of a positron and neutrino - something which once belonged to the cyclone-pair perhaps?

The Fujiwhara effect or Fujiwara interaction is a type of interaction between two nearby cyclonic vortices, causing them to appear to "orbit" each other. When the cyclones approach each other, their centers will begin orbiting cyclonically about a point between the two systems. It is this "point" that the two cyclones pinwheel about which now interests me. Assuming that this central point belongs to the aether, I think that particles based in this central point could become extremely active. Active enough perhaps, for us to notice them as a positron and a neutrino if they were knocked free?

What's really interesting about this 3 cyclone structure is that it materialises into 2 donutoms. It looks a bit like a helium-3-cyclone-pair is being displaced by a hydrogen ion, everything seems to get all busted-up, and a free-for-all takes place. I don't know if these figurative formulas help you, but they sure do me:

6969 + 666 → 6969 + 6969 + e+ + ν

Be8 → 2 He4: Is the final step of the third branch, where beryllium-8 rapidly decays into 4 donutoms. This might be made to look something like this:

69696969 → 6969 6969

"Helium is present in substantial quantities at the birth of every star, so the initial composition of the star is never an impediment to the PP process proceeding along the second and third branches. As a star converts its hydrogen to helium, increasing the density of helium in the core, these branches becomes more common.

The core temperature determines which of these branches is dominant. The first PP process branch dominates in the production of helium for core temperatures below roughly 15 million degrees (1.3 keV), the second branch dominates between 15 and 25 million degrees (1.3 to 2.2 keV), and the third branch dominates above 25 million degrees.

The total energy released in converting four hydrogen nuclei into a single Helium nucleus is the same for each of the three branches, 26.7 MeV. Much of this energy, however, is carried by the neutrino, and because neutrinos interact weakly with other particles, most of them escape from a star's core without loss of energy.

The fractions of the energy lost from the core through direct emission of neutrinos for the first, second, and third branches are 2%, 4%, and 28%. The third branch produces a substantial energy output in neutrinos, making it an import source of energy loss. Neutrinos from this branch were the focus of the first experiments that measured the sun's neutrino flux and found it to be lower than expected."


Being able to manipulate fusion reactions for neutrinos could prove to be an important source of fuel in the future.



Many thanks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavitation
http://hep.bu.edu/~superk/solar.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwhara_effect
http://science.howstuffworks.com/fusion-reactor1.htm
http://www.np.ph.bham.ac.uk/research/anthropic.htm

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