Muon catalyzed fusion; my thoughts...

[Sven Andersson]

In muon catalyzed fusion the two deuterons (they are usually deuterons) are bound by the muon about 1/200th of the inter particle distance in a D2+ ion (a deuterium molecule that has lost one electron). The bond length in D2 (or D2+) is something like 0.6 Angstrom (Ångström!). So, in the short lived muon-deuterium molecule the inter particle distance is 3*10^(-13) meters. This is two orders of magnitude too large for the strong force to work! The strong force supposedly works over a distance of 10^-15 meters. How can this be explained? How can fusion happen? A picture: two marble balls must be within a distance of 1 centimeter for "something" to "happen". But they are 3 meters apart, so nothing should "happen"!

Sven