Analysis of Deuterium-Tritium Fusion Energy-Release Mechanism Based on Photon-Original Theory of Proton-Neutron Energy-Threshold Model

Abstract

Conventional nuclear-physics and fusion-engineering frameworks explain mass defect and energy release in deuterium-tritium fusion by means of the binding-energy theory of strong interaction. This paradigm only provides macroscopic numerical fitting of energy values as a simplified approximation for engineering calculation. It lacks a complete microscopic physical chain of energy conversion and cannot essentially resolve core physical contradictions in fusion processes. Starting from the self-consistent Photon-Original Theory, this paper establishes an energy-threshold model for gamma-photon confinement within protons and neutrons, systematically elaborates the underlying microscopic mechanism of energy release in deuterium-tritium fusion, and fully analyzes the whole sequence of energy generation, transfer, attenuation and radiative evolution during fusion. According to the core inference of the Photon-Original Theory: classified as fundamental nuclear particles within the standard particle-model framework, protons and neutrons internally consist of stable photon-cage structures formed by high-energy gamma-photons locked together through strong confinement under extreme conditions. Each nucleon possesses a fixed upper threshold for storable gamma-photon energy. As isotopes of hydrogen, protium, deuterium and tritium differ only in neutron count while sharing a single proton in their nuclei. The protons and neutrons inside these nuclei stay at the saturation upper limit of the photon-accommodation threshold, representing nucleons with maximum intrinsic stored energy in nature. When deuterium and tritium nuclei undergo fusion in the high-temperature, strong-magnetic-field plasma environment of a tokamak and reorganize into helium nuclei plus free neutrons, the spatial arrangement of nucleons contracts. The photon-storage threshold of protons and neutrons decreases accordingly, and the nuclear system can no longer maintain its saturated photon-energy state. Excess high-energy gamma-photons are expelled from nuclear confinement. These escaping gamma-photons carry equivalent rest mass and constitute the experimentally measurable mass defect in deuterium-tritium fusion. The prevailing macroscopic simplified model adopted internationally assigns the total 17.6 MeV energy corresponding to the fusion mass-defect directly to directed kinetic energies of helium nuclei (alpha-particles, 3.5 MeV) and free neutrons (14.1 MeV). Although this scheme satisfies tokamak engineering budgeting, device design and operational adjustment with practical utility, it omits microscopic intermediate processes and does not represent the true microscopic mechanism of fusion. The conventional paradigm merely lists final kinetic-energy values for neutrons and alpha-particles without identifying the intermediate carrier that transfers energy to those particles; the physical origin of particle kinetic-energy remains unexplained. This paper proposes that particle kinetic-energy originates from stepwise energy transfer carried by escaping primary gamma-photons, completing the causal microscopic chain. Two hypotheses governing energy conversion are compared systematically: the widely adopted simplified hypothesis of instantaneous kinetic-energy conversion, and the multi-step collisional energy-transfer hypothesis mediated by gamma-photons derived from the Photon-Original Theory and established particle-physics rules. Cross-comparison between thermonuclear-explosion and tokamak-plasma scenarios, matching against radiative observations, and analysis of particle-interaction probabilities demonstrate that complete resonant absorption of an entire high-energy gamma-photon by a neutron or helium nucleus with instantaneous conversion into particle kinetic-energy corresponds to an extremely rare resonance case rather than the dominant pathway for energy transfer. The dominant microscopic process proceeds as follows: primary high-energy gamma-photons generated during nuclear reorganization repeatedly scatter off neutrons, alpha-particles and free electrons within dense plasma, transferring fractions of their energy progressively. Photon energy decays continuously from high-energy gamma-rays into secondary gamma-rays, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation and visible light. The absence of detectable primary high-energy gamma-signals in tokamak measurements does not indicate that fusion fails to produce gamma-photons. Instead, low energy density and frequent particle collisions inside the device fully degrade primary gamma-photons before they can escape, creating an observational illusion. Detectable gamma-radiation from thermonuclear explosions occurs because the extreme instantaneous energy-density allows large numbers of primary gamma-photons to escape before complete energy degradation, providing further evidence for primary gamma-photon generation during fusion. This work reconstructs the microscopic chain of energy transfer, hierarchical radiative evolution, sources of observational bias, and dual origins of irradiation effects in fusion processes, filling logical gaps within conventional binding-energy theory. Compared with traditional simplified models, the proposed threshold-evolution and stepwise photon-energy-transfer framework offers greater physical consistency, broader agreement with observational phenomena and a more realistic mechanistic description. It provides new theoretical underpinnings for steady-state plasma confinement, energy-gain improvement, irradiation-damage mitigation and low-activation structural-material development in tokamak research.