Rydberg Atoms/Rydberg matter/Muons

This page is original research. It may be openly edited, but is not required to be neutral. Opinion should be attributed. Comments below are by User:Abd unless otherwise stated.

My own critique of this work is mild. This is the latest paper I have seen:

• Muon detection studied by pulse-height energy analysis: Novel converter arrangements, Leif Holmlid and Sveinn Olafsson, AIP Review of Scientific Instruments, Volume 86, Issue 8, August 2015.

This paper bristles with what appear to me as extraordinary claims, many, not just one. Yet I'm not seeing that the basics have been nailed down. It's entirely possible that the researchers are satisfied. However, as far as I can tell, the basis for that satisfaction isn't explained, and that makes me worry about the editorial process.

Here we have a claim of a new method of detecting muons, and how is the new method tested? With a known muon source? Apparently not. It is tested by detecting muons from a material where generation of muons is an extraordinary claim. Has the new method been verified by comparing results with known methods of detection?

At the foundation of all the Holmlid work for the last few years is the discovery of ultra-dense deuterium. While the finding of remarkable effects in this material lends some level of support to the original finding, I'm queasy. A huge structure of inferences is being created, without securing the foundations.

Experiments occur to me to test the findings. The muon claim is of highly penetrating radiation. If they are reliably measuring this radiation, they should be able to then observe and document the full radiation field, showing the variation of intensity with location, which then can establish source. That won't establish the radiation as muonic, probably, but would show the presence of a clear radiation anomaly.

The paper purports to be about a detection method, and it appears in a journal devoted to such. However, the generation of muonic radiation by the technique they are using is far more astonishing than a detection method. I don't really see evidence in the article to support the rather glib assumption that the cause of the effects they are seeing is muonic radiation.

All this, by the way, looks nothing like cold fusion.

Experimental notes

Toward confirmation/disconfirmation of the Holmlid muon results.

Detection of muons:

• Muon Physics, T.E. Coan and J. Ye, a great description of how to build a muon detector and analyze the results.