Anomalies in fracture experiments, and energy exchange between vibrations and nuclei

Abstract

A variety of anomalies have been reported in recent years in fracture experiments, including neutron emission, elemental anomalies, and alpha emission. Such anomalies are similar to those studied in condensed matter nuclear science, which has been of interest to us in the development of theoretical models. In this work a brief review of the new theoretical approach is given, along with connections to both anomalies in fracture experiments and anomalies in other experiments. The fracture anomalies in this picture arise naturally as a result of the relevativistic interaction between vibrations and internal nuclear degrees of freedom, and up-conversion of vibrational quanta. A major conclusion of this work is that the elemental anomalies cannot be accounted for by disintegration as an incoherent process; since the observed products show a high degree of selectivity, while disintegration is very much non-selective. The possibility of disintegration as a coherent quantum process is introduced, and a suggestions for new experiments and measurements are put forth that can help to clarify underlying mechanisms.