Ectons, Charged Clusters, Electron Clusters, Exotic Vacuum Objects (EVOs) Rossi's Catalyst: Electron Clusters Light Up Christmas This Year (Hank Mills) The following post has been submitted by Hank Mills
When an adequate electrical potential is applied to a cathode in proximity to an anode, a complex series of processes, many simultaneous, take place. The result can be an accumulation of electric charge localized to a tiny region of the cathode surface, usually at a surface irregularity such as a crack, pit, or protrusion. Once a critical level of charge is accumulated, an “ecton” explosion takes place, allowing an almost fluidic stream of electrons to surge out of the cathode. These electrons exist amid a spray of metallic vapor from the “cathode spot” and positively charged gaseous ions. By a process that is not fully understood, these electrons – along with a much smaller quantity of positive ions – self organize into a structure that allows the electrons to stick together in close proximity, defying their mutual electrostatic repulsion due to their like charge. These mysterious objects have been described by scientists around the world going back at least a century. Although referred to by many different names including strange radiation, ectons, charged clusters, electron clusters, exotic vacuum objects (EVOs), charged plasmoids, and micro-ball lightning, they are truly ubiquitous in that they have been produced in an extremely wide array of circumstances in various experimental apparatuses.
One researcher in particular, Kenneth Shoulders, the author of EV – A Tale of Discovery and numerous shorter online documents, spent many years of his life investigating these objects, which he described as exotic vacuum objects or EVOs. Among many other interesting effects, he discovered that some unknown property of this high density, likely torodial structure of electrons could nullify almost its entire effective mass, along with the much higher mass of heavier positive ions trapped inside. The result is that once created, the input energy cost to accelerate an EVO from a cathode to an anode was minuscule, perhaps less than a thousandth of what would be expected. Moreover, if during the course of travel the torodial plasmoid was to interact with physical structures, truly bizarre effects would take place that defied all current scientific knowledge.
As an example, if a one micron sized EVO was made to follow an undersized channel (let’s say perhaps a tenth of a micron in diameter) between two slabs of a dielectric material such as aluminum oxide, the object would atomize the obstructing material into a liquid via a non-thermal process while boring an appropriately sized channel. The aluminum oxide slush would be rapidly ejected out of the channel along the same path as the EVO. In other cases, if an EVO carrying internal positive ions was accelerated into an appropriately configured anode, nuclear reactions could be produced by a number of different mechanisms, including the anomalous kinetic energy acquired by the heavy ions. In many of these impacts transmutation products could be identified.
From his relentless experimentation, Ken Shoulders learned that these EVOs could transform from a “white” excited state in which they emitted electrons (allowing them to be filmed in his custom-made electron pinhole camera) through many intermediate gray states to a “black” state that was for all intents and purposes, invisible. In the black state, the EVO interacted only very weakly with matter. However, with a proper stimulus in the form of an externally applied electric field or several cycles of RF frequencies, the ghostly structure could be brought back to life as a white EVO.
Eventually, Shoulders gained the experience to produce EVOs of various diameters (from hundreds of nanometers to perhaps a few tens of microns or even larger in some cases), maneuver them through the equivalent of small scale obstacle courses including right angle turns, split individual EVOs into multiple smaller units to recombine them at another location on the guidance track, and even fire them off from cathodes at frequencies of up to the megahertz range. Perhaps equally importantly, he learned how to identify the evidence of their presence – their varied but unique signatures.
Ken Shoulders found the track marks of EVOs in a wide variety of materials, including the spent fuel of LENR or cold fusion experiments. However, he was not alone in identifying strange marks left behind by these anomalous self-sustaining structures of electric charge. Other teams around the world, going back decades, had found the same fingerprint markings produced by their experiments.
Exploded wires, high current arc discharges through liquid, electrolytic cold fusion cells, plasma based abnormal glow discharge tubes, Tesla coils, electrical components pushed until dielectric breakdown, and many other apparatuses could produce these self-organizing structures. Even cavitation bubbles produced by ultrasound in a liquid have proven to create them. High voltage isn’t even always needed to create them: tracks have been discovered on the electrodes of six-volt electrolysis cells!
Since they often produce x-rays or low-level gammas when impacting metals, the remains of exploded wires or electrolytic electrodes have been placed near detectors. Up to a couple days after the initial experiment was completed, the tracks of “strange radiation” along with x-rays were found – sometimes at the distance of a meter or through barriers that would have blocked alpha or beta rays! In some experiments, magnetic materials like nickel or iron were found to trap, absorb, or at least prevent the passage of these anomalous emissions. Other materials, like aluminum, sometimes had little effect at all, allowing them to pass through. Likely, a spectrum of EVOs spanning many “gray” levels were passing through space and eventually being detected. Many others were likely lost to the environment. Everywhere this extremely intuitive and highly skilled inventor looked, the evidence of charge clusters seemed to exist. There’s no escaping their presence or effects!
The majority of energy gainful, exothermic processes within the entire range of cold fusion reactors that have been built to date are likely directly related to the initial synthesis, purposeful guidance, and resulting actions of EVOs. Andrea Rossi’s energy catalyzer models from his first powder based systems to the E-Cat QX are no exception. In each model of his reactors, he built in mechanisms – perhaps in his earliest systems unknowingly – that produced both EVOs and the conditions for them to catalyze LENR reactions. As his knowledge of what was transpiring in his reactors grew more complete, he made appropriate enhancements that increased the reaction rate or even allowed the direct production of electricity. But before any examples of such improvements can be provided, another physical phenomenon must be briefly discussed that has been fully and wholly accepted by mainstream physics: surface plasmon polaritons (SPP). I’ll effort to describe this topic in a plain and intuitive manner, which means readers will have to perform their own online research for a more comprehensive summary of the topic. But my explanation should be good enough to convey the fundamental concepts that are critical for grasping what I believe is Andrea Rossi’s now not-so-secret catalyst.
An electrically conductive metal has some number of mobile electrons that are free to move about. Without these charge carriers being able to move about, there could be no such thing as a surface plasmon polariton. Now, let’s examine each component of this potentially confusing term.
The first word, “surface” means that this phenomenon takes place on the surface of a metal. More precisely, SPPs can be found at the interface of a metal surface and a dielectric (which can be a gaseous environment, a solid, or even free space). All the action takes place just above or below the surface.
Next, at this surface is a, “plasmon” which can be very roughly conceptualized as an undulating or bobbing collection of electrons from the metal pushing up from the surface, extending above some distance, and crashing back down again below the surface. Even though the lattice of the metal is solid, these free electrons have the mobility to travel freely and slosh about like a liquid: almost like waves or ripples on a pond.
Finally, we come to the word, “polariton” which refers to how these ripples of electrons (plasmons) at the surface interact with various stimuli from the environment. If an electromagnetic wave in the form of photons (two examples of photon sources could be a laser or infrared light from a hot surface) impacts the metal-dielectric interface at the surface of the metal, the electric component of the photon imparts momentum to the free electrons creating potentially powerful ripples of electrons that spread out in all directions, rapidly dropping in magnitude.
However, there are additional ways to produce surface plasmon polaritons (couplings of plasmons and stimulus at a dielectric interface) other than the impact of photons. Electrically charged particles such as electrons, protons, or ions impacting the surface can also produce the same collective projections of electrons rolling across the surface. Likewise, SPPs can be generated on the metal-dielectric interface of a cathode pulsed with a voltage source. The whole system of the pulsating “surface plasmon” along with the source of stimulus is referred to as a pseudo-particle, hence the overall “surface plasmon polariton.” Now, since we have the word salad sorted out, we can move on!
SPPs are not necessarily EVOs; however, they are important in the creation of EVOs for multiple reasons. They facilitate the electric field amplification on a sharp tip or surface protrusion, such as the pointed wires used by Kenneth Shoulders or the large number of nano-needles found on the surface of planar electrodes in other systems. This allows for the “ecton explosion” that releases a burst of electrons, metal vapor, and ions. Furthermore, SSPs may generate the orientations and organized structures of surface plasmons which, once ejected into the internal space of a reactor from a discharging cathode, might lead to the formation of the EVO.
A good analogy could be a lump of clay on the spinning wheel of a potter. The spinning blob is not a vase or watering pot. To be transformed into a usable, functional piece of pottery, an external force (in this case the hands of the artisan) must intelligently mold and shape the raw material into the desired structure. Similarly, I believe the creator of the universe, devised a method that allows his hands – through the dynamic forces of the active vacuum or aether – to combine the undulating, patterned SPP with some number of heavier ions while shaping the plasmoid that will become the EVO.
Given the above, a reasonable thought would be that by further enhancing SPPs on a metal-dielectric interface, more “ecton” events could be triggered, and, hence, EVOs created. The good news is that there are multiple methods of enhancing SPPs.
To be best of my understanding, here are a several methods that have proven to work in mainstream optics research labs: placing surface protrusions on a planar surface that will produce a large electric field pushing the plasmon upwards, creating pits or cracks on a surface which will make the plasmon project horizontally into each side of the crevice, utilizing an array of differently sized spherical particles that will strengthen the plasmons where the particles make contact, utilizing a dielectric of higher permittivity and/or a conductor of greater conductivity, matching the size of surface irregularities (or powder sizes) to the wave length of oncoming photons to produce resonant conditions, utilizing smaller surface area wires instead of large planar surfaces to reduce dissipation rates for a giving stimulation, and setting up specific patterns of surface features with the goal of creating lenses that can focus plasmons.
But the most obvious way of enhancing the production of a SPP should be obvious: striking the material with an EVO! According to Kenneth Shoulders, in addition to producing various kinds of structural damage, the EVO can dump a massive electrical charge onto a target in an extremely short period of time, perhaps in a picosecond or less! He demonstrated that a hundred billion electrons from a single EVO of approximately one micron in diameter can be imparted during such an energetic strike.
The plasmon undulations of electrons rippling through the surface layers of the target material would be immense. Although Kenneth Shoulders, as far as I’m aware, never referred to SPPs in his writings, he elaborated on how such impacts could create self-sustaining chain reactions. He called them “wildfires.” His reasoning was straightforward. If you have an embrittled surface – such as nickel loaded with hydrogen to create a hydride layer – the kinetic damage of the strike could damage the lattice creating breaks, fractures, and cracks. The result is fracto-emission of electrons – a well-documented phenomenon in scientific literature.
However, going beyond what’s currently understood by mainstream science, he claimed that the wildfires he observed (in addition to heat after death in LENR systems) were due to EVOs being produced by those incidents of fracto-emission. These emissions of charged clusters, likely carrying some number of protons, would then inflict additional damage, creating a semi-perpetuating cycle that could go on for extended periods.
In one experiment that may be useful in visualizing the effect of SPPs, Shoulders placed the exposed, uncovered end portion of a length of insulated wire – 1/64th inch diameter covered with Formvar insulation – within the guide path of an EVO. He then allowed it to be struck multiple times. Under a critical voltage of 4.8 kilovolts, nothing significant happened. However, upon hitting that input voltage, sparks (which always indicate an EVO has been created) were emitted from the entire length of the wire which were powerful enough to blast off chunks of the insulation.
In subsequent strikes, sparks would only emerge from the insulated portions, and not where the insulation had been blasted off. The explanation here is pretty straightforward. Upon being hit by an EVO, the small diameter, low surface area wire allowed for the resulting surface plasmon polariton spikes to be intensified rather than spreading out over a large area and fading out. The SPPs were intensified even further where the dielectric insulating material covered the wire! Where the Formvar was not present, the only dielectric present was the low pressure, perhaps near vacuum gases of the surroundings. Here is a great example of how one EVO strike can trigger the production of many more.)
In recent years there have been many papers and patent applications published that revolve around the concept of powerful surface plasmon polaritons inducing nuclear reactions and isotopic shifting in a more direct manner. Often, the SPPs are stimulated with a specific type of laser, perhaps focused on a hydrogenated surface. Although the scientific jargon can be challenging to mentally digest at times, one explanation is that powerful SPPs on appropriate surfaces can liberate or produce a certain type of “slow neutron” with a large “cross section” that can easily penetrate into the nucleus of nearby atoms to induce isotopic shifting and/or exothermic nuclear reactions.
Another line of thought suggests that such intense SPPs can produce “heavy electrons” that can penetrate the electron shells of an atom to produce other types of reactions that produce energy. Some researchers cojecture that these heavy electrons may actually represent some form of electron cluster shielding the electrostatic charge an interior proton. Whatever the primary nuclear mechanism(s) of the reactions reported in such literature turn out to be, SPPs and the EVOs they help generate are intricately involved – without a doubt.
Using the understanding these two phenomena – SPPs and the “strange radiation” they generate – we can begin to examine how Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat technology evolved over time. In the following I hypothesize several optimizations made on the E-Cat is by no means complete or even totally accurate. But I believe it can provide insights into how Rossi produced SPPs, generated EVOs, and intelligently guided them to generate excess power. I’ll try to be brief on each point.
I encourage readers to spend a little time this holiday season considering the dynamics of how photons, electrons, ions, and plasmas may interact with roughened, properly sized surfaces to produce powerful Surface Plasmon Polaritons and EVOs that can induce nuclear reactions. Then, of course, how these EVOs can keep the process going by exciting even more intense SPPs and fracto-emission of additional charged clusters from hydrogen embrittled metals. Perhaps this coming year will be an exciting one with many detailed replications of the Rossi Effect.
Merry Christmas and an Energetic New Year!
Hank Mills