Nuclear fusion catalyzed by doubly charged scalars: Implications for energy production

A number of popular extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics predict the existence of doubly charged scalar particles X-+/-+/-. Such particles may be long lived or even stable. If they exist, X-- could form atomic bound states with light nuclei and catalyze their fusion by essentially eliminating the Coulomb barrier between them. Such an X-catalyzed fusion (XCF) process does not require high temperatures or pressure and may have important applications for energy production. A similar process of muon-catalyzed fusion has been shown not to be a viable source of energy because of the sticking of negative muons to helium nuclei produced in the fusion of hydrogen isotopes, which stops the catalytic process. We analyze XCF in deuterium environments and show that the X particles can only stick to Li-6 nuclei, which are produced in the third-stage reactions downstream in the catalytic cycle. The corresponding sticking probability is very low and, before getting bound to Li-6, each X particle can catalyze similar to 3.5 x 10(9) fusion cycles, producing similar to 7 x 10(4) TeV of energy. We also discuss the ways of reactivating the X particles from the Coulomb-bound ((LiX)-Li-6) states, which would allow reusing them in XCF reactions.