Theoretically, if we just create a high pressure with low (room 20C) temperature, at some point nucl

adocidasiaqxm

adocidasiaqxm

Answered question

2022-05-13

Theoretically, if we just create a high pressure with low (room 20C) temperature, at some point nuclear fusion can be started.
Is there any research on this topic, how high should be this pressure for different type of reaction? Maybe someone has some numbers in mind, how many GPa should we have to achieve it?

Answer & Explanation

Madalynn Acosta

Madalynn Acosta

Beginner2022-05-14Added 15 answers

From memory the potential barrier for deuterium tritium fusion peaks at around 3 femtometres.
Suppose we take the deuterium-tritium distance as r then the electrostatic force between the nuclei is:
F = k e 2 r 2
and we get can a pressure by dividing this by the area of a sphere with radius r to get:
P = k e 2 4 π r 4
You should regard this as a very rough estimate, but it should be immediately apparent the the r 4 dependence is going to be a killer because it rises very rapidly for small r. If we take r to be 10 femtometres we get a pressure of about 10 28 Pa. This is so ridiculously large that even given the rough nature of our estimate it's obvious that this approach is not going to work. The pressure at the centre of the Sun is only around 3 × 10 16 Pa.

Do you have a similar question?

Recalculate according to your conditions!

New Questions in Nuclear physics

Ask your question.
Get an expert answer.

Let our experts help you. Answer in as fast as 15 minutes.

Didn't find what you were looking for?