Acceleron Banks on Muons for Colder Fusion

The startup has raised US $24 million to pursue a plasma-free approach to fusion. Because muons are much heavier, the length of this bond is reduced to roughly 0.5 percent of the original. This brings the two atoms close enough that the strong nuclear force—the force that holds nuclei together—takes over and pulls the atoms together until they fuse, releasing massive amounts of energy. Crucially, this reaction doesn’t require particularly high temperatures, says Knaian.

Muon fusion is economically futile by itself. However it may bring an energy gain in some LENR systems. A patented laser-induced muon generator (Holmlid 2017) is used to observe also the spontaneous formation of muons from ultra-dense hydrogen H(0).