Neutrons from Muon-Catalyzed Fusion and Muon-Capture Processes in an Ultradense Hydrogen H(0) Generator

A generator for ultradense hydrogen H(0) also generates kaons, pions, and muons both spontaneously and after laser-pulse induction. The negative muons formed can be used to generate the well-studied muon-catalyzed nuclear fusion D + D process in deuterium gas D₂. Both laser-induced and spontaneous neutron emissions are now observed from the generator by commercial neutron detectors. Thermalization with polyethylene plastic blocks is used for the ⁶Li thermal neutron detectors (Kromek TN15 and Saint Gobain BC-702), which increases the signal rate; the background in the laboratory increases by a factor of 3. A laser-induced neutron signal is observed with D₂ gas at pressure <1 bar. It is attributed to muon-catalyzed fusion by slow muons in the D₂ gas at high D₂ pressure. The size of the neutron signal is limited by the relatively inefficient moderation of the muons before their decay in the low D₂ gas pressure used. With ordinary hydrogen H₂ or p₂ (protium), no fusion but only a low signal possibly from capture-generated neutrons is observed. This neutron signal in p₂ gas is often temporarily depressed by the laser probably due to changes in the p(0) material. The spontaneous signal using p₂ in the generator can be due to neutron-ejecting capture processes caused by muons formed spontaneously in the generator, while the spontaneous signal with D₂ may be due to muon-catalyzed fusion as well as capture processes.