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A few words first  about muon catalyzed fusion. 

You can see this question sigoldberg1 answer, and  this link.

"The muon may bump the electron from one of the hydrogen isotopes. The muon, 207 times more massive than the electron, effectively shields and reduces the electromagnetic repulsion between two nuclei and draws them much closer into a covalent bond than an electron can. Because the nuclei are so close, the strong nuclear force is able to kick in and bind both nuclei together. They fuse (through quantum tunneling ), release the catalytic muon (most of the time), and part of the original mass of both nuclei is released as energetic particles, as with any other type of nuclear fusion. The release of the catalytic muon is critical to continue the reactions." 

It's important to note here that if the mass of the electron was 5-10 times larger, this process would work with electrons instead of muons.

A few words about relativistic channeling .

It is important to note here the relativistic mass increase of the relativistic electron inside the crystal lattice.

Question 1. Based on these facts, is it feasible to consider relativistic channeled electron catalyzed fusion, due to relativistic mass increase of the electron in the crystal lattice  (basically the heavy relativistic electron playing the role of the muon in the process described above)?

Question 2. Same question if you channel both deuterons and electrons through the crystal lattice.

If  correct  , that means that a Hydrogen saturated Palladium rod exposed to a beam of electrons ( or expose the Palladium rod to both beams of deuterons and electrons) in the right direction (probably close to axial or planar channeling) could lead to positive results. The geometry is important here, thus explaining the low  rate of successful reproduction of the cold fusion experiments of Pons and Fleischmann  (and I don't know if anybody tried this exact experiment ). 

Cristian Dumitrescu
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  • Note that Pons and Fleischmann weren't spraying anything with highly relativistic electrons, so this has nothing to do with 'successful reproduction' of cold fusion experiments (nor did they release neutrons). – Jon Custer Aug 02 '19 at 12:54
  • Thank you for your comment @JonCuster . Schwinger had something interesting to say about how lattice energy is involved in this: https://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue1/colfusthe.html – Cristian Dumitrescu Aug 02 '19 at 17:24
  • That would explain the lack of characteristic fusion debris. And yes, this is a different experiment than the original Pons and Fleischmann experiment because it involves channelling and relativistic effects. – Cristian Dumitrescu Aug 03 '19 at 04:48

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Muon-catalyzed fusion involves the muon being in a low-energy bound state orbiting around the nucleus. This is because the rate of fusion is dependent on the physical size of the negative charge wavefunction around the nucleus, and higher-energy orbitals, in general, extend further outward from the nucleus. Relativistic channeling involves high-energy unbound electrons being redirected by a crystal lattice. In order to get these "higher-mass" electrons* to enter bound states, they have to lose almost all of their energy, which means they don't have "higher mass" anymore.

*These electrons are simply higher in total energy. "Relativistic mass" is exactly equivalent to the total energy of the particle, and the answer to your question would have been rather obvious if this terminology was used. This is one of the reasons why "relativistic mass" is no longer taught by most physics courses; it avoids misconceptions like this one.

probably_someone
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