THE SURFDYN CONCEPT - AN ATTEMPT TO SOLVE (OR RENAME) THE PUZZLES OF COLD NUCLEAR-FUSION

The lack of reproducibility of the cold fusion experiments, aggravated by the great diversity and inconsistency of the positive results, imp lies that these nuclear phenomena are hypersensitive, i.e., correlated to a ''chaotic'' factor. All the factors considered so far, such as s tructure, transformations, or defects of the crystal lattice; bubbles of deuterium; dendrites, etc., are insufficiently chaotic to explain t he known facts. Experimental data suggest that nuclear reactions take place in active sites on the surface of the lattice, that they are sti mulated by dynamics factors, and that they represent an extreme form o f heterogeneous catalysis. Consequently, according to modern ideas con cerning catalysis, the desired chaotic factor is the surface dynamics of some metallic deuterides (hydrides). This hypothesis, called the su rfdyn concept, is compatible with all published data, explains the pec uliarities of cold fusion, and must be supported by an adequate theory describing the nature and mechanisms of the different nuclear process es.