Origin of Transmutation Products in Sonicated Mercury: A Charge-Conservation Constraint and Superconductor Prediction

Abstract. Cardone et al. (2017) reported that sonicating pure mercury at 20 kHz for three minutes produces solid grains containing thirteen elements — notably titanium (7,800 ppm), hafnium, selenium, nickel, gallium, vanadium, and cerium — and interpreted these as products of piezonuclear transmutation. We apply elementary charge-conservation analysis to all proposed binary fission channels for ²⁰²Hg and find that only the Ce + Ti channel (Z = 58 + 22 = 80) is permitted. Vanadium, hafnium, gallium, and nickel cannot be produced by binary fission of mercury. We propose instead that the dominant source of titanium and vanadium is erosion of the standard Ti-6Al-4V sonicator horn under cavitation — a well-documented phenomenon consistent in rate and elemental ratio with the measured concentrations. A single control experiment (replacement of the Ti-6Al-4V horn with a non-titanium sonotrode) falsifies or confirms this hypothesis. Independent of the elemental origin, we apply our previously developed Transmutation Cascade Engine to predict the superconducting properties of the solid product. Local vanadium-enriched zones within the inhomogeneous grains are predicted to form A15-structured V-Ti alloy with Tc ≈ 22 K, enhanced to ≈ 23.6 K by residual mercury acting as a relativistic 6s charge donor. The Cardone solid grains have never been tested for superconductivity. We recommend cooling the existing demercurised samples to 4 K.