Cold fusion in palladium: a more realistic calculation.
The Thomas-Fermi-Mott equation is modified to take account of the fact that conduction electrons in a metal may be considered to have an effective mass at wave-numbers comparable with or less than the inverse Debye screening length, but they should be considered to have the free-electron mass at much larger wavenumbers. This modification allows for a more realistic calculation of the fusion rate of deuteron pairs in palladium, this rate being 10(-23) sec-1, comparable with some experimental results. The Oppenheimer-Phillips process enhances the rate by a factor of 2.262.
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Department of Physics, Arizona Research Laboratories, University of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ 85721, USA.
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