Well, I have had my head buried in the books lately.
Here is, hopefully, the swan song for the stripping issue which has been kicked around like an old football for years on the list. Our foes or doubting Thomases who just know that we can't be fusing (at first glance) throw this up in our faces and like a bad penny it hangs around, coming back again and again. The pros have been of little assistance and searching the literature has been lackluster 'til now.
Reference: Fast Neutron Physics Part I, page 96, "tertiary reactions"
They finally got around to several reactions which can soil the neutron monochromaticity of the d-d reaction. All are considered tertiary reactions and all become bothersome, in a data gathering sense, at deuteron bombardment energies of about 10 MEV!! However!!! They supply a table of thresholds for several of these spoilers. The stripping or D + D to p + n + D reaction has a threshold of 4.45mev! That's threshold.......
Other tertiary reactions with debris protons and tritons in our d-d soup are possible also, but all have thresholds above 3.7 mev and like the above reaction are not worth honorable mention at our level of operation.
We have discussed that photo disintegration of the deuteron requires gamma energies of about 1.2mev, minimum.
Thus, There is no way that any process reported or known can strip neutrons from deuterons below 1.2 mev and then only with gamma rays of that energy. We have no such particles in or around our fusors at any conceivable amateur energy level.
Finally, as we are bombarding deuterons with deuterons we are about 2 orders of magnitude below any deuteron stripping threshold in our d-d system.
Also, at our energy levels the D + D to n + He3 reaction is the favored reaction of the two, normally seen, d-d fusion reactions.
Remember this post next time you are blasted by the would-be detractors of your efforts.
I have nibbled at this tome for 2 years and was more interested in the detection schemes mentioned and can't beleive I over looked this stuff! I suppose, in my mind, this was a good metrology reference and I let the rest go. I am on my usual long Christmas vacation and have lots of time to read, so I am re-tasting many volumes on hand.
Richard Hull
Created on Sunday, December 17, 2000 6:45 PM EDT by Richard Hull