Cold fusion, Would this work?

[Brotoro]

That's because white dwarfs don't produce sufficient pressure and temperature to kick off fusion in the materials it's core is composed of.... they're too small. However, those same materials are happily fused in the cores of larger stars, until you reach iron. When iron starts fusing, the real fun begins.

Yes. The pressure in a white dwarf is caused by degenerate electrons, not by the heat of the gas. And the pressure and temperature inside a white dwarf is not high enough for the carbon and oxygen nuclei there to fuse. But if you make the white dwarf too massive (above the Chandrasekhar limit of 1.4 solar masses), the degenerate electron pressure can no longer support the star, and it will collapse and heat up to the temperatures needed to fuse the carbon and oxygen....and supernova type Ia funtime ensues.

[Dedjal]

I am a bit puzzled. Our sun "Sol" is not big enough, so it can not fusion things together through pressure and heat.

But, the pressure packs the atoms together tightly and the heat makes them vibrate, so through quantum mechanics, fusion happens.

Because there are billions upon billions of atoms, some are bound to hit eachothers through the quantum effect, thus fusing them together.

Atleast, that's what I've learned.

[lajoswinkler]

Now add that if you managed to get an huge mass of degenerated hydrogen and fusion starts you have an problem, as the fusion increases temperature you will get more and more fusion until the thing rip it self apart or explode, pretty much like an critical mass of plutonium.

Fusion is actually pretty rare in stars or more precise: the number of fusion reactions for cubic meter/second is surprisingly low. the huge size of the stars make up for it.

Indeed, the density of the actual fusion reactions is poor. Most people think the center of the Sun is very active, but then it wouldn't last this long.

[Brotoro]

I am a bit puzzled. Our sun "Sol" is not big enough, so it can not fusion things together through pressure and heat.

But, the pressure packs the atoms together tightly and the heat makes them vibrate, so through quantum mechanics, fusion happens.

Because there are billions upon billions of atoms, some are bound to hit eachothers through the quantum effect, thus fusing them together.

Atleast, that's what I've learned.

Our Sun certainly is massive enough for thermonuclear fusion to happen...the central density and temperature are great enough to allow the proton-proton chain of nuclear reactions to tick along at a relatively leisurely rate, which is why it will take the Sun about 10 billion years (from the time it formed) to use up all the hydrogen in its core.

The high temperature is not for making the nuclei "vibrate", it's to make the move very fast... fast enough to overcome the coulomb repulsion of the positive electrical charges of the nuclei so that the nuclei can get close enough together to have a reasonable chance for the fusion reactions to take place. And the denser the core is, the more often this happens as well.