AI-assisted hypothesis: Can high-Tc hydrides be stabilized by separating pairing phonons from hydrogen escape paths?
AI-use disclosure: I am not a condensed-matter physicist or materials scientist. I developed this proposal as an independent layperson using ChatGPT extensively for literature synthesis, hypothesis exploration, mathematical formalization, organization, and drafting. I have not run the proposed calculations and I am not claiming a discovery.
Core question: In metastable high-Tc hydrides, can the phonon motions responsible for strong electron-phonon pairing be sufficiently separated from the nuclear motions that cause H diffusion, H-H dimerization, or structural reconstruction that the destructive coordinates can be selectively stiffened without destroying the useful pairing?
The proposal defines a pairing-active subspace G from mode-resolved electron-phonon coupling and an escape/reconstruction subspace B from AIMD/PIMD and reaction-path trajectories.
The proposed falsification test is:
- Reproduce benchmark hydride calculations.
- Identify G from the modes carrying most of λ.
- Independently identify B from actual failure trajectories.
- Quantify the overlap between G and B.
- Add an artificial restoring force only to the destructive component outside G.
- Sweep the confinement strength and recalculate both superconducting and kinetic properties.
The decisive output would be a Pareto curve between retained pairing/Tc and improved kinetic retention.
If enough confinement to suppress diffusion or reconstruction also destroys the relevant EPC, the central idea fails. If kinetic stability improves substantially while most pairing survives, the resulting anisotropic force-constant pattern becomes an inverse-design target for real chemistry.
The proposal also includes ordered MgAlRuH6 only as a diagnostic 4d candidate for a separate formal-d7 screening hypothesis. I am not claiming it is stable or superconducting.
What I would most like criticized:
- Is the G/B subspace construction physically meaningful once anharmonicity and curved reaction paths are treated properly?
- Is there a better overlap metric?
- Does the artificial force-constant perturbation actually isolate the hypothesis?
- What is the cheapest calculation you would run first to falsify this?
Full proposal, references, failure criteria, and AI disclosure:
https://github.com/callmepoindexter/mode-selective-hydride-stabilization