Meson bunches formed by pulsed laser-induced processes in ultra-dense hydrogen H(0)
Abstract Ultra-dense hydrogen H(0) (reviewed in Holmlid and Zeiner-Gundersen, Physica Scripta 2019 ) consists of small strongly bound molecules with interatomic distance of 0.56 pm in spin state s = 1. It is a useful nuclear fuel for energy generation, giving heat above break-even (Holmlid, AIP Advances 2015) in laser-induced processes (Holmlid, Int. J. Hydr. Energy 2021). Nuclear processes in H(0) emit particles in typical meson decay chains with kinetic energy up to 100 MeV. These mesons decay and generate fast muons at up to 500 MeV energy at current densities of several mA cm-2 at 1–2 m distances, which corresponds to 1013 -1014 muons formed per laser pulse. It is shown that the mesons decay in chain processes with well-defined meson time constants in the range 10–60 ns. The time varying signals from H(0) agree well with mesons M in decay chains as A ◊ M ◊ N where N is a signal muon. M may be a charged kaon K± (decay time constant at rest 12.4 ns) or a charged pion π± (decay time constant at rest 26 ns) or a long-lived neutral kaon \({\text{K}}_{L}^{0}\) (decay time constant at rest 51 ns). Ultra-dense protium p(0) gives the same time constants as D(0) but slightly different decay-chains. The meson bunches observed are similar to the meson bunches from nucleon + antinucleon annihilation. The energy gain in the nuclear process is at least 8000, strongly indicating baryon annihilation for which process further evidence is given in other recent publications.