Colloquium

Department of Physics & Astronomy

Quantum Plasma Nuclear Fusion for New Energy Futures

May 30, 2007l Hit 855
Date : May 30, 2007 16:00 ~
Speaker : Y. E. Kim(Department of Physics, Purdue University, USA)
Professor :
Location : 56동106호
Our world is anticipating environmental and energy crisis in the near future. Current world energy strategies and energy systems are not sustainable and are inadequate for the future. We developed an entirely conventional description of the quantum plasma nuclear fusion (QNPF) mechanism using the generalized momentum distribution, and obtained the quantum corrections to the conventional plasma fusion rates. Based on their semi-analytical formula, substantially enhanced QPNF rates have been predicted for proton-lithium (p+Li) and proton-boron (p+B) plasmas. The quantum modification due to interactions between particles in a plasma leads to a generalized momentum distribution which has a high-energy momentum distribution tail diminishing as an inverse eighth power of the momentum, instead of the conventional Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution tail decaying exponentially. From nuclear and particle physics experiments, there is much indirect experimental evidence of the predicted power-law fall-off of an inverse eighth power of momentum, rather than an exponential fall-off.