Abstract. Recently, spectroscopic and calorimetric observations of hydrogen plasmas and chemical reactions with them have been interpreted as evidence for the existence of electronic states of the hydrogen atom with a binding energy of more than 13.6 eV. The theoretical basis for such states, which have been dubbed hydrinos, is investigated. We discuss both the novel deterministic model of the hydrogen atom, in which the existence of hydrinos was predicted, and standard quantum mechanics. Severe inconsistencies in the deterministic model are pointed out and the incompatibility of hydrino states with quantum mechanics is reviewed.

A corrigendum was added to this paper on 23 June 2006. See the PDF and HTML files.

Received 24 March 2005
Published 19 May 2005