Beniamin Filimonov (State University of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus)
I watched the report on Profs. Fleischmann and Pons news conference at the U of Utah of March 23, 1989, a day later, when it was shown by the Soviet TV. That was one of the most exciting and inspiring moments I ever experienced.
I had no doubt at that time either Cold Fusion is real or not, I knew IT IS. I also needed not any comment on the TV picture to realize and declare WHAT HAD THEY DONE: an electrolysis of heavy water using palladium cathode. First proofs of the latter supposition appeared in Soviet mass media two weeks later when I was already preparing the CF experiment at the Institute for Nuclear Problems...
My belief on what CF is may be expressed by two words only: the Synergetic Activation (SA). I propose that self-organization processes caused by intense energy loading of solids force a non-equilibrium distribution of energy fluctuations in such a way that the probability P^{*} of gaining by atom the energy packet large enough for an initiation of some sort of nuclear reaction become significant. The analytical formula of the noted distribution is resulted from the fact that an excitation of atom from the initial E_{0} level up to the final E^{*} level in SA may implement by a multistage process instead of a single act, so the final probability is the product of noted stages probabilities, which is described by the power type expression having a negative power factor:
P^{*} = ({E^{*}／E_{0}})^｛γ｝,
where γ = 1 〜 3 and depends on the exited energy levels structure of the atom, instead of the exponential one for an equilibrium case. This type of distributions seems to be just common one for natural non-equilibrium systems far beyond the CF proper.
The SA needs a perfect crystalline structure of solid for providing a favorable dynamics of energy redistribution, and conservation of the same under action. This defines the necessary outer parameters (such as temperature, pressure, hydrogen isotope to host metal ratio, rate of hydrogen or deuterium loading, etc.) values to be satisfied, which are predictable from the SA model. This point seems to be a critical one for solving the irreproducibility problem of CF.
Our experiments using the heavy water electrolysis technique with niobium cathodes specially prepared in accordance with SA model requirements exhibited reliable and reproducible neutron emission and excess heat. The SA model does not deal with nuclear reactions proper but describes the preliminary stage of further CF reactions, if any, namely the energy redistribution. So, the model is consistent with any other CF theory either catalysis, or resonance, or tunneling one \haihun if the latter considers a necessity of the above \haihun thermal energy packet gaining by the atom for CF to proceed.