First Laboratory Fusion Reactions (Deuteron-Deuteron)
1934Oliphant, Harteck & Rutherford, "Transmutation effects observed with heavy hydrogen" (Proceedings of the Royal Society A 144, 692-703, 1 May 1934; DOI 10.1098/rspa.1934.0077). Bombarding deuterium compounds with accelerated deuterons produced nuclear reactions between light nuclei -- the first laboratory demonstration of fusion -- and identified the heavier hydrogen and helium isotopes (tritium and helium-3) formed. This is the fork point of the fusion branch in the timeline: the same Cavendish-era nuclear-physics culture as the neutron discovery, but no citation edge to the fission chain.
Originators
- Mark Oliphant
- Paul Harteck
- Ernest Rutherford
Landmark Paper
Checked 2026-10-18 — interim signal only, see docs/BASIC_ROADMAP.md Phase 10
Connections
- is precursor to Lawson Criterion for Net-Energy Fusionbasis: reasoned
Lawson's criterion asks what plasma conditions let light-nucleus fusion reactions pay for themselves; it presupposes that such reactions occur at measurable rates in the laboratory, first shown by the deuteron experiments of Oliphant, Harteck and Rutherford. Reasoned dependency, not a verified citation.
Cross-Domain Connections
No verified cross-domain connections indexed for First Laboratory Fusion Reactions (Deuteron-Deuteron) yet. Verified links are admitted under FSTP epistemic audit standards.