Phusons in nuclear reactions in solids

An explanation is given for the anomalous branching ratio in solids based on Boson-cooperative removal of the 4He* energy prior to decay by two-body fission. Facilitated by isospin restrictions that limit conventional pathways, the excess heat is driven by the reconfiguration to the more tightly bound 4He ground state. A temperature rise occurs as well-mixed acoustical and optical phonons are unable to carry off all the local momentum and excess energy of the reactions. Four-vector analysis indicates conservation of energy, which suggests the use of a fusion quantum of energy delivered to the lattice's phonon cloud: a phuson. Special relativistic considerations indicate that the phonon cloud subtends ∼ 450 to 800 unit cells and can couple with de-excitation times > 0.1 fs. Thus, commensurate levels of neutrons and gammas are not required because of unique isospin and energy restrictions that facilitate the alternate Bose-cooperative pathway leading from the excited state. 56 refs., 2 figs., 3 tabs