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Blacklight Power, Inc. (BLP) is a company founded by Randell L. Mills for power generation based on his theory of Classical Quantum Mechanics (CQM). According to Mills' CQM, hydrinos are said to be hydrogen atoms that have entered a state below the ground state, the minimal energy allowed by quantum mechanics. Blacklight Power claims on its website to have developed a catalytic process that can cause the hydrogen atom to convert some of its potential energy into kinetic energy, and has raised over fifty million dollars in venture capital. A subsidiary company, Millsian Inc., has developed and released a molecular modeling program based on Mills' theory.

Premises behind allegations of a new source of energy

Rejection of mainstream particle physics

In spite acknowledging that standard particle physics has predictions consistent with experimental results, he claims that its problems are in excess of its successes:

The Dirac equation does not reconcile this situation. Many additional shortcomings arise such as instability to radiation, negative kinetic energy states, intractable infinities, virtual particles at every point in space, self-interaction, the Klein paradox, violation of Einstein causality, and 'spooky' action at a distance. Despite its successes, quantum mechanics (QM) has remained mysterious to all who have encountered it. Starting with Bohr and progressing into the present, the departure from intuitive, physical reality has widened. The connection between quantum mechanics and reality is more than just a "philosophical" issue. It reveals that quantum mechanics is not a correct or complete theory of the physical world and that inescapable internal inconsistencies and incongruities arise when attempts are made to treat it as a physical as opposed to a purely mathematical 'tool.'

Theory

Mills claims he has unified Maxwell's Equations, Newton's Laws, and Einstein's General and Special Relativity on the basis that they must hold on all scales from the subatomic to the cosmic. He named his system of equations under the name of his book Classical Quantum Mechanics (CQM). Later versions of this book were given new title The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics (GUT-CP). This is in direct contradiction with conventional quantum field theory.

Two-dimensional model of electrons

Mills claims that the electron is an extended particle or membrane that in free space would consist of a flat disk of spinning charge. Mills' mathematical model for the bound electron treats the electron not as a point nor as a probability wave, but as a dynamic two-dimensional spherical shell surrounding the nucleus. The resulting model, called the "orbitsphere", is claimed to provide a fully classical physical explanation for phenomena including quantization, angular momentum, Bohr magneton, while avoiding the problem of a singularity. Mill's model derives "classical" orbitals from the classical nonradiation condition as defined by Hermann A. Haus in 1986. The model is not limited to the integer orbitals of the hydrogen atom as postulated by the Bohr model and calculated from Schrödinger's equation , but also allows fractional integer orbitals.

Blacklight process

According to Mills, a specific chemical process he calls "The BlackLight Process" allows the bound electron to fall to an energy state below that of currently accepted quantum theory, at 1/integer that of the ground state radius. He terms these below-ground hydrogen atoms 'hydrinos'. Mills' mechanism consists of a non-radiative energy transfer between a hydrogen atom and a catalyst that is capable of absorbing a certain amount of energy. The total energy Mills says is released for hydrino transitions is large compared to the chemical burning of hydrogen, but less than nuclear reactions. Mills claims that limitations on confinement and terrestrial conditions have prevented the achievement of hydrino states below 1/30, which would correspond to an energy release of approximately 15 keV per hydrogen atom.

Alleged experimental findings

According to the BLP website, Mills et al. have published over 70 peer-reviewed experimental studies reporting significant observations, including:

  • Chemical reactions that produce plasmas in gas cells with input energies far below the level that conventional theory predicts is required to produce such plasmas.
  • Spectral lines from gas cell plasmas which match the predictions for hydrino transitions.
  • Detection of excess heat from plasma cells using water bath calorimetry.
  • New chemical compounds said to have been formed from hydrino hydrides (i.e. a hydrino which has captured another electron to form a negative hydride ion) which show unusual properties and structure.
  • Molecular 'dihydrino' gas formation and detection.
  • Experiments demonstrating excess energy when sodium hydride is heated in contact with Raney nickel catalyst (R-Ni)

Published material

Mills has put forward his theoretical claims in his book, originally called The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Quantum Mechanics (CQM), and later given the new title The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics (GUT-CP). which is divided into three volumes:

  1. Atomic Physics, in which Mills proposes a classical model of the hydrogen atom, its excited states and hydrino states, and corresponding models for the free electron, photon, multi-electron atoms and ions, and double-slit phenomena.
  2. Molecular Physics, in which Mills proposes a classical model of the hydrogen bond, and uses it to solve molecules (simple to complex organics), ionic lattices, metals, and semiconductors.
  3. Collective Phenomena, High-Energy Physics, and Cosmology in which Mills proposes a modification to general relativity with ensuing discussions of particle production, fundamental particles, and large-scale features of the universe. He also discusses superconductivity, statistical mechanics, and other phenomena.

Mills has also published the following theoretical papers:

  • R.L. Mills (2006). "Maxwell's Equations and QED: Which is Fact and Which is Fiction". Physics Essays (2): 225–262. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
  • R.L. Mills (2005). "The Fallacy of Feynman's Argument on the Stability of the Hydrogen Atom According to Quantum Mechanics". Annales de la Fondation Louis de Broglie (2): 129–151. ISSN 0182-4295. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
  • R.L. Mills (September, 2005). "Exact Classical Quantum Mechanical Solutions for One- Through Twenty-Electron Atoms". Physics Essays (3): 321–361. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
  • R.L. Mills (2004). "The Nature of the Chemical Bond Revisited and an Alternative Maxwellian Approach". Physics Essays. 17 (3): 342–389.
  • R. Mills (2003). "Classical Quantum Mechanics". Physics Essays (4): 433–498. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
  • R. Mills (October 2001). "The Nature of Free Electrons in Superfluid Helium". Int J Hydrogen Energy: 1059–1096. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |Issue= ignored (|issue= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Volume= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help) - a test of quantum mechanics and a basis to review its foundations and make a comparison to classical theory

Public reactions

Criticism

Mills' explanation of CQM and hydrinos has met with criticism in the literature and is not generally accepted by scientists, especially those who specialize in quantum mechanics. Mills claims his alleged below-ground states can only be obtained using a catalyst (implying a non-spontaneously stimulated reaction). The hydrogen-like products from the reaction are said to have enhanced binding energy between the electron and the proton in comparison to the conventional ground state of hydrogen. Psuedoscience researcher Edmund Storms claimed that Mills theory explains reports of cold fusion experiments, though they have been discredited by the scientific community.

A 2005 evaluation by Rathke claims there are "severe inconsistencies" in Mills' theory, including a lack of "solutions that predict the existence of hydrinos." Mills responded to Rathke with an article (listed as "in press" on the BlackLight Power website) claiming Rathke made nine major errors in his analysis. Rathke also claims that Mills' equations were not Lorentz invariant, a requirement of any theory that explains the behavior of particles moving close to the speed of light.

Jan Naudts of the University of Antwerp argues that Rathke did not take into account complexities introduced by relativistic quantum mechanics, and that without doing so Rathke was not justified in rejecting the possibility of a hydrino state. Inspired by Naudt's response to Rathke, Norman Dombey concluded that Mill's theory of hydrino states is "unphysical". According to Dombey, hydrino states are unphysical for the following is required for them to be physical:

  1. Hydrino states would need non-relativistic counterparts to remain physical, but they don't have them.
  2. Hydrino states would need to be incompatible with a coupling strength (fine structure constant) equal to zero to remain physical, yet "hydrino states" seem to exist in the absence of any coupling strength.
  3. Hydrino states would need to have binding strength that falls with the coupling strength (fine structure constant), but instead, the hydrino model predicts that binding strength for hydrino states increases as the coupling strength (fine structure constant) falls. Said another way, in situations where the coupling strength (fine structure constant) is zero, the coulomb potential for the hydrino model is undefined, and as a result, hydrino states are unphysical.

Antonio Di Castro demonstrated in 2007 that hydrino states "do not exist as bona fide solutions of the Schrödinger, Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations." Mills denies that any of those equations are valid.

Responses by independent researchers in chronological order

  • May-November 2002: A NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I study is conducted at Rowan University, led by mechanical engineering professor Anthony Marchese, to investigate the so-called BlackLight Process for use in spacecraft propulsion. The team reports they successfully replicate results obtained by BlackLight, including the observation of line broadening indicative of hydrogen atoms moving much faster than would ordinarily be expected under the experimental conditions.

"Mills has written a 1000 page tome, entitled The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Quantum Mechanics, that takes the reader all the way from hydrinos to antigravity (WN 9 May 97). Fortunately, Aaron Barth (not to be confused with Erik Baard, the Randy Mills apologist), has taken upon himself to look through it, checking for accuracy. Barth is a post doctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Institute, and holds a PhD in Astronomy, 1998, from UC, Berkeley. What he found initially were mathematical blunders and unjustified assumptions. To his surprise, however, portions of the book seemed well organized. These, it now turns out, were lifted verbatim from various texts. This has been the object of a great deal of discussion from Mills's Hydrino Study Group. Mills seems not to understand what the fuss is all about." - Park

  • January 4, 2005: Šišović et al have reported that observed line broadening contradicts Mills's models.

"We found that CQM is inconsistent and has several serious deficiencies. Amongst these are the failure to reproduce the energy levels of the excited states of the hydrogen atom, and the absence of Lorentz invariance. Most importantly, we found that CQM does not predict the existence of hydrino states!" - Rathke

  • August 5, 2005: Jan Naudts of the University of Antwerp argues that Rathke did not take into account complexities introduced by relativistic quantum mechanics, and that without doing so Rathke was not justified in rejecting the possibility of a hydrino state.
  • 2007: In a review of cold fusion research, Edmund Storms, a cold fusion researcher, concludes that the hydrino model provides a possible explanation for cold fusion.
  • May 1, 2008: Hans-Jürgen Kunze suggests "that spectral lines, on which the fiction of fractional principal quantum numbers in the hydrogen atom is based, are nothing else but artefacts."

Media and press releases

On May 28, 2008, a press release by BLPI claimed sucessful testing of a prototype generating 50,000 watts of thermal power on demand. Later on October 20, 2008, BLPI made a statement that Peter Jansson of Rowan University had completed a three month test of their reactors and validated excess heat production. On December 11, 2008, BLPI announced that it has signed its first commercial license, with Estacado Energy Services; but there was no corresponding announcement from Estacado. The Columbia Journalism Review commented at length on the credulous reportage by CNN's Poppy Harlow of the BLPI release in an article entitled "Weird Science (Reporting)". On January 6, 2009, Blacklight Power issued a press release announcing that it has signed its second commercial license agreement with Farmers' Electric Cooperative Inc. of New Mexico to produce up to 250 MW of continuous power.

Randell Mills

Mills graduated from Harvard Medical School, and studied biotechnology and electric engineering at MIT. He has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Franklin & Marshall College in 1982.

References

  1. Official site
  2. Official site BlackLight Power
  3. http://professional.venturewire.com/story.asp?sid=NIMHPJLMMQ VentureWire (subscription required)
  4. "Millsian". Millsian. Official site
  5. Randell L. Mills. "Exact classical quantum mechanical solution for atomic helium which predicts conjugate parameters from a unique solution for the first time" (PDF). Blacklight Power. Retrieved 2009-03-02. (self published)
  6. ^ Mills, Randell L. (2008). "The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics". Blacklight Power. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) (Self-published)
  7. "The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics". Blacklight Power. Retrieved 2009-03-02. (self published)
  8. Haus, Hermann A. (1986). "On the radiation from point charges". American Journal of Physics. 54: 1126. doi:10.1119/1.14729.
  9. ' Randell L. Mills (2008-01-21). "Physical solutions of the nature of the atom, photon, and their interactions to form excited and predicted hydrino states" (PDF). BlackLight Power. Retrieved 2009-03-02. (self published)
  10. "BlackLight Power, Inc. Publications: Journals, Proceedings and Book" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-04-07.(self published)
  11. Mills, R.; Ray, P. (7 July 2003). "Extreme ultraviolet spectroscopy of helium-hydrogen plasma". J Phys D. 36 (17): 1535–1542.
  12. Mills, R. L.; Zhao, K.; Akhtar; Chang, R.; He, J.; Lu, Y.; Good, W.; Dhandapani, B. "Commercializable power source from forming new states of hydrogen" (PDF). BlackLight Power. Retrieved 2009-03-02. (self published)
  13. ^ Rathke (2005). "A critical analysis of the hydrino model". New Journal of Physics. 2005 (7): 127. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/7/1/127. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Cite error: The named reference "Rathke" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  14. ^ Storms, Edmund (2007), Science of low energy nuclear reaction: a comprehensive compilation of evidence and explanations, Singapore: World Scientific, p. 184, ISBN 9812706208
  15. Mills, Randell L. "Physical solutions to the nature of the atom, photon, and their interaction to form excited and predicted hydrino states" (PDF). Blacklight Power. (Self-published)
  16. Mills. "Mills Rebuttal of Rathke Regarding Hydrinos" (PDF). Blacklight Power. (Self-published)
  17. Rathke (2005). "A critical analysis of the hydrino model". New Journal of Physics. 2005 (7): 127. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/7/1/127. ...this wave equation is not Lorentz-invariant for any other phase velocity than the speed of light {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. Naudts, Jan (5 August 2005). "On the hydrino state of the relativistic hydrogen atom" (v2 ed.). arXiv. arXiv:physics/0507193v2.
  19. Dombey, Norman (8 August 2006). "The hydrino and other unlikely states". Phys Ltrs A. 360: 62. arXiv:arXiv:physics/0608095.
  20. de Castro, Antonio S. (4 April 2007). "Orthogonality criterion for banishing hydrino states from standard quantum mechanics". Phys Ltrs A. 369: 380. arXiv:arXiv:0704.0631v1.
  21. Marchese, A. J.; Jansson, P.; Schmalzel, J. L. (1 May – 30 November 2002). "The BlackLight rocket engine NIAC phase I final report" (PDF).
  22. Park, Bob (27 October 2000). "What's New?". University of Maryland. Retrieved 2009-03-02.
  23. Šišović, N. M.; Majstorović, G. Lj.; Konjević, N. (4 January 2005). "Excessive hydrogen and deuterium Balmer lines broadening in a hollow cathode glow discharges". European Physical Journal D-Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics. 32: 347–354. doi:10.1140/epjd/e2004-00192-1.
  24. Rathke, Andreas (20 May 2005). "A critical analysis of the hydrino model". quant-ph/0505150].{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  25. Naudts, Jan (5 August 2005). "On the hydrino state of the relativistic hydrogen atom". arXiv. physics/0507193v2 .
  26. Kunze, H-J (2008). "On the spectroscopic measurements used to support the postulate of states with fractional principal quantum numbers in hydrogen". J Phys D: Appl Phys. 41: 108001. doi:10.1088/0022-3727/41/10/108001.
  27. "BlackLight Power Inc. announces commercial ready alternative power solution" (PDF) (Press release). BlackLight Power. 28 May 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2008. (self published)
  28. "BlackLight Power Inc. announces independent replication of new energy source". Blacklight Power. 20 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-20. (self published)
  29. "Blacklight Power bolsters its impossible claims of a new renewable energy source". New York Times. October 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  30. "Blacklight process Estacado press release" (DOC) (Press release). December 11, 2008. (self published)
  31. Raeburn, Paul (December 15, 2008). "Weird Science (Reporting) - CNN covers unfounded claims about new energy technology". Columbia Journalism Review.
  32. "BlackLight Power Inc. Announces Second Commercial License with Farmers' Electric Cooperative, Inc. of New Mexico". Press release. Blacklight Power. 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
  33. Jacqueline A. Newmyer (May 17, 2000). "Academics Question The Science Behind BlackLight Power, Inc". Harvard Crimson. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
  34. Erik Baard (December 21, 1999). "Quantum Leap: Dr. Randell Mills says he can change the face of physics. The Scientfic Establishment thinks he's nuts". The Village Voice. Retrieved February 10, 2009.

External links

Advocacy

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General media

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