Analysis of the p- 11 B Fusion Scenario with Compensation of the Transfer of Kinetic Energy of Protons and Alpha Particles to the Gas Medium by the Electric Field

The energy balance of the p- 11 B fusion scenario with compensation of the transfer of kinetic energy of protons and alpha particles to the gas medium by the electric ﬁeld is considered. It is shown that such scenario cannot provide the use of p- 11 B fusion reaction for power production due to the very low ratio of the energy release of the fusion reaction to the energy necessary for compensation. The upper boundary of this ratio is about 2 × 10 − 3 .


Introduction
e influence of chain reactions on the rate R 1 of p-11 B fusion reaction is discussed since 1973 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. One of the chain reactions consists of the scattering of at least one of the three alpha particles, generated by reaction (1), on proton(s) with acceleration of the proton(s) to kinetic energies, corresponding to a relatively high cross-section σ 1 for reaction (1) and the subsequent participation of the accelerated proton(s) in this reaction [1,4,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. According to [1], at the temperature of 150-350 keV and the density of 10 16 -10 26 cm − 3 , this chain reaction and other "nonthermal" effects result in an increase in R 1 on 5-15%. e type of particles with such densities was not mentioned [1], but this detail is not essential because in plasma under consideration, the densities of all particles are comparable [8].
According to [2-4, 7, 9, 10, 12], at least if special measures are taken, the increase in R 1 due to the chain reactions can be so high that it will provide the possibility of the use of reaction (1) for power production. e negative results of analysis of such assumptions from [2][3][4] are presented in [5,6,8,11].
In 2020, Eliezer and Martinez-Val [9] and Eliezer et al. [10] proposed p-11 B fusion scenarios with the influence of electric and magnetic fields on protons and alpha particles in the gas medium. e main idea of the proposal is that during some time periods, time-dependent electric field should compensate approximately for the transfer of kinetic energy ε p of a proton with ε p ≈ ε * p , where ε * p is ε p corresponding to the largest value of σ 1 for the collision of proton with the nucleus of 11 B in the rest, to the medium and for transfer of the kinetic energy of the alpha particle to the medium [9,10].
is compensation should increase the probability of participation of the protons in reaction (1) and that of "useful" acceleration of protons due to the scattering of alpha particles on them. e magnetic field should provide the realization of these scenarios in reactors with acceptable sizes [9,10]. Below, it is shown that in the scenario proposed in [10], the ratio g of energy release of reaction (1) to the average value 〈W s 〉 of the energy spent for the initiation of one reaction (1) will be unacceptably low for power production.

The Upper Boundary of g
Eliezer et al. [10] analyzed the situations when reaction (1) occurs in gaseous H 3 11 B or other hydride of 11 B with a density of 10 19 cm −3 or of the order of 10 19 cm −3 and temperature of about 1 eV or few eV. Ionization of this gas is supposed negligible [10]. Since a free molecule of H 3 B does not exist and at the temperature above 700°C all hydrides of boron dissociate into boron and hydrogen [13], we will estimate the lowest boundary W l s of 〈W s 〉 in gas medium consisting of atoms of 11 B with the density and molecules of H 2 with the density At the conditions described in [10], the medium containing atoms of boron and molecules of hydrogen will also contain atoms of hydrogen and ions, but this is not essential for the analysis of the acceptability of attainable values of g for power production. e ratio n 11B /n H2 corresponds to the ratio of the numbers of nuclei of 11 B and protons in the nonexisting free molecule of H 3 11 B discussed in [10]. e choice of n 11B corresponds to an example presented on page 5 of Reference [10] and is mainly important for an estimate of the typical proton path l typ � 1/(σ 1 n 11B ), corresponding to one reaction (1). e estimate of W l s presented below yields that this parameter is independent of n 11B .
In the situation under consideration, the change dε p of ε p on proton path dx is given approximately by where e is the proton charge, E is the strength of the electric field, and k p H2 and k p B are the parameters describing the transfer of ε p to molecules of hydrogen and atoms of boron, respectively. e parameter k p H2 was calculated as k p where A H is the atomic mass of hydrogen, m u is the atomic mass unit, and S p H2 is the stopping power of molecular hydrogen for proton. e parameter k p B was calculated as where A Be is the atomic mass of beryllium, S p Be is its stopping power for proton, A C is the atomic mass of carbon, and S p Cam is the stopping power of amorphous carbon with the density of 2 g/cm 3 for proton. e values of S p H2 , S p Be , and S p Cam from [14] were used. e parameter k p B was approximated by (6) due to the absence of data on the stopping power of boron for proton in [14]. is equation corresponds to the assumption that the product P of the stopping power of the medium, consisting of atoms or molecules of one chemical element with atomic number Z, on the atomic mass of this element depends on Z approximately linearly and, therefore, where ΔZ is a small natural number, for example, unity or two. In order to demonstrate that at least in some situations, the accuracy of (7) is rather high, let us compare P(Z � 6, ε p � 600 keV) ≈ 3797 MeV cm 2 g −1 and P(Z � 6, ε p � 700 keV) ≈ 3440 MeV cm 2 g −1 , calculated using S p Cam from [14], with the same parameters, calculated using (7) and ΔZ � 2. Substituting S p Be and the stopping power of molecular oxygen for proton from [14] into (7), we obtain P(Z � 6, ε p � 600 keV) ≈ 3773 MeV cm 2 g −1 and P(Z � 6, ε p � 700 keV) ≈ 3424 MeV cm 2 g −1 . us, in these cases, the relative accuracy of (7) is better than 1%. is allows us to assume that at 600 keV ≤ε p ≤ 700 keV (see below), the relative accuracy of (6) is of the order of 1% or even better.
is results, in particular, in the impossibility to provide a stable motion of proton with such kinetic energy at constant E [10]. e highest value of 1/(eE 0 l typ ) corresponds to ε p ≈ 657.6 keV, E 0 ≈ 24.6 kV/ cm, l typ ≈ 3.36 × 10 5 cm, eE 0 l typ ≈ 8.27 GeV, and (8.7 MeV)/(eE 0 l typ ) ≈ 1.052 × 10 − 3 . ese values of eE 0 l typ and (8.7 MeV)/(eE 0 l typ ) can serve as W l s and the upper boundary of g, respectively. It should be emphasized that the real value of 〈W s 〉 can be much greater than eE 0 l typ due to acceleration of secondary charged particles, i.e., molecular ions of hydrogen, protons, ions of 11 B, and electrons created by the fast protons considered above and alpha particles, etc. [16][17][18]. At sufficiently high temperature, the acceleration of electrons and ions arising due to thermal ionization can also be important. e problem of the possibility of electric breakdown in the gas medium under consideration can probably be solved only experimentally. e presented estimate of W l s corresponds to the assumption that the magnetic field prevents the acceleration of electrons and relatively slow molecular ions of hydrogen, protons, and ions of 11 B by the electric field. However, the accuracy of this estimate is sufficient for the reliable qualitative conclusion about the unacceptability of the scenario proposed in [10] for power production: in any case, 〈W s 〉 will include eE 0 l typ and, therefore, g will be too low. e reason is that the efficiency of the use of any fusion reaction for power production will be determined, in particular, by the cost of electricity [19,20]. According to [20], for the inertial fusion energy power plant with conversion of fusion energy into thermal energy and subsequent conversion of 30-35% of the latter into electricity, the cost of electricity will be acceptable when the product of the target gain on the driver efficiency η d exceeds ten. e target gain is the ratio of fusion energy release of one microexplosion to the energy delivered to the target for ignition of the microexplosion [20].
is parameter should exceed ten even if η d is close to unity and is an analog of the parameter g. us, g of the order of 10 − 3 and less is not sufficient for power production involving conversion of fusion energy into thermal energy. Note that Weaver et al. [1] discussed briefly the potential feasibility of power production in the regime of subignition operation corresponding to g < 1. In any case, g of the order of 10 − 3 and less seems to be too low even for this regime.
Note also that in the scenario proposed in [10], the acceleration of alpha particles, if it is not suppressed by the magnetic field, will not provide the effective acceleration of protons and, therefore, will serve mainly as a process increasing 〈W s 〉. is can be shown using equations, similar to (4)- (6), and the data from [10,11,14,21] for the analysis of the motion of alpha particles and the transfer of their kinetic energy to protons. e compensation of deceleration of protons in the gas medium consisting mainly of atoms of 11 B will also not provide sufficiently high values of g: at n H2 � 0, the highest value of 1/(eE 0 l typ ) corresponds to ε p ≈ 656.6 keV, eE 0 l typ ≈ 4.30 GeV, and (8.7 MeV)/(eE 0 l typ ) ≈ 2.024 × 10 − 3 .

Conclusion
e scenario proposed in [10] cannot be used for effective power production due to the very low attainable g, the upper boundary of which is about 10 − 3 . A decrease in n H2 /n 11B2 down to zero can result only in an approximately two-fold increase in the upper boundary of g. e real value of g can be much less than its upper boundary.

Data Availability
e data used to support the findings of this study are included within the article.

Conflicts of Interest
e author declares that there are no conflicts of interest.