New Paper by Leif Holmlid: “Mesons from Laser-Induced Processes in Ultra-Dense Hydrogen H(0)” — (COP 450?)

There has been some discussion here already about the paper published on January 12 by Swedish scientist Leif Holmlid on the PLOS website titled “Mesons from Laser-Induced Processes in Ultra-Dense Hydrogen H(0)”, and I thought it worth putting in its own thread. The article can be accessed here:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169895

The paper describes the results of research in which Holmlid fires a laser at a potassium doped iron oxide catalyst which produces ultra-dense hydrogen (deuterium and protium), and then collects charged particles that are produced from the resulting reaction. He reports that “Mesons with different velocities are generated by the laser-induced nuclear processes in ultra-dense hydrogen D(0) and p(0).”

I must admit that the physics of the paper is difficult for me to follow, but the nice thing about this paper is that it is based on experimental results which are important if we are looking at things from a practical, technological point of view, Holmlid claims that his experimental work have shown a remarkable energy gain.

Here is an excerpt from the discussion page of the paper where Holmlid discusses the energy balance:

It may thus be interesting to estimate the total energy released by the nuclear processes initiated by the laser. From Fig 6 the total signal at the outer collector is approximately 100 mV in 50 Ω resistance with negative bias, or a peak current of 2 mA. The total charge per laser pulse collected at 163 cm distance is thus approximately 3×10−11 As. Assuming an energy of the particles of 20 MeV gives 6×10−4 J per pulse. The fraction of the total sphere around the target covered by the outer collector is 6×10−5. An isotropic distribution over the whole sphere is likely since the direction of the beam to the collectors is quite arbitrary relative to the laser beam (45°) and the normal of the target (60°). This gives total particle energy of 10 J, much higher than the laser pulse energy of 0.2 J. In the experiment in Fig 6, an inner slit was in fact used with an opening of 6.6×10−6 of the total sphere, an even smaller value. [b]This gives an energy of 90 J released, a factor 450 higher than the laser-pulse energy (emphasis added).

If Holmlid’s conclusions are correct here, then this would be a very important contribution to the body of LENR/cold fusion research.