Nuclear and Atomic Physics

Photon Induced Low Energy Nuclear Reactions

Authors: Pankaj Jain, Ankit Kumar, Raj Pala, K. P. Rajeev
Comments: 25 pages and 3 figures, paper submitted for publication in Pramana

We propose a new mechanism for inducing low energy nuclear reactions (LENRs). The process is initiated by a perturbation which we assume is caused by an external photon. The initial two body nuclear state absorbs the photon and forms an intermediate state which makes a transition into the final nuclear state with emission of a light particle which in the present paper is taken to be a photon. We need to sum over all energies of the intermediate state. Since the energy of this state is unconstrained we get contributions from very high energies for which the barrier penetration factor is not too small. The contribution from such high energy states is typically suppressed due to the large energy denominators and its matrix element with the initial state. Furthermore the process is higher order in perturbation theory in comparison to the standard fusion process. However these factors are relatively mild compared to the strong suppression due to the barrier penetration factor at low energies. By considering a specific reaction we find that its cross section is higher than the cross section of the standard process by a factor of 10^41 or more. This enhancement makes LENRs observable in laboratory even for relatively low energies. Hence we argue that LENRs are possible and we provide a theoretical set up which may explain some of the experimental claims in this field.
Category: Nuclear and Atomic Physics