Excitation transfer and energy exchange processes for modeling the Fleischmann-Pons excess heat effect

The absence of energetic particles commensurate with the energy produced is the single most notable feature of the Fleischmann-Pons experiment for theory, assuming that a new nuclear process is involved. We discuss briefly energy exchange between two-level systems and a low energy oscillator, concluding that spin-boson models augmented with loss are able to describe coherent energy exchange involving a large number of oscillator quanta. Since the coupling between deuterons and the lattice is weak, the excitation must be transferred to a different system with stronger coupling, in order to develop a simple model relevant for heat production. The resulting toy model can be used for simulation, and we describe briefly ongoing efforts to develop a computational model.