Talk-Polywell.org

So any further thoughts on starting a Helion or FRC forum or subsection?

Chrismb: what the heck are you talking about, of course it's a plasma! I really think quite the opposite: most folks here don't know enough basic plasma physics, myself included. In particular, to only learn the Polywell version of the story is a lopsided introduction to the subject.

Sweet, Sweet, SWEET! :lol: :D :shock: $8mn is quite something. Congratulations Dr. Nebel & Co! I'm really glad they are going to have the mandate to look at the basic physics of the thing. I think that's where Dr. B probably could have done things differently, since his background was in engineering...

I hear that Chen is the most widely used introductory text to plasma physics. It's only about 60quid on ebay used, not too bad.

Very cool! I wish I could have visited that lab! But you probably made alot more use of the experience. I think having a forum or a subsection of this forum devoted to FRCs would be a great idea. I suppose Joel Strout would need to OK the subsection. Art, what do you think about the prospects of a s...

I always wondered what happened to Leik! Looks like he's done well for himself w/ that new contract. I like this concept and I hope it pans out.

That's bogus.

Edit: on looking into it, maybe there's something there after all. It's certainly unorthodox, who starts a company named after himself, trying to outrun the fusion community single-handedly?

Try this:

http://www.jpaerospace.com/atohandout.pdf

Thanks all! Frequency response is the main deal, we're looking into the tens of MHz. Yeah, bitsy, as in, the core I wind the wire around is a 1mm cylinder of plastic with channels cut in it to make 3 axes (axises?) The wire is 40gauge magnet wire. It's very easy to break, about the diameter of a hai...

Well, it's not fusion-related, but it is plasma physics. I'm working with Dr. Christoph Niemann of UCLA and LLNL/NIF. They've got me apprenticed to a graduate student, making teensy little B-dot probes for a laser-produced plasma experiment. Dr. Niemann is interested in laser-plasma interactions and...

Art, about those boundary conditions: we are expecting an electric field at the edge of the plasma which confines the ions, so the field ought to point inward, which implies a net negative charge in the plasma, not a positive charge as you imply with the ion density being greater than the electron d...

Woohoo! This sounds like good news to my ears! Especially the mention of a PB11 demo, that would awesome.

Geez, what a mess. They want to pull the first wall experiments, neutral beam injectors, and divertor on the 1st pass? I bet some people really *are* angry.

Well, this is cool! Art is (guardedly) excited about something! :lol: So they are planning on just shooting the plasma into a sustained high B-field region and relying on the kinetic energy of the plasma to compress itself, right? I initially thought they were going to try to ramp the compressing fi...

Ahh, thanks Art, ignoring the collective energy would do the trick I suppose. That's a pretty elementary mistake, though. I rather doubt they did it on purpose... he *is* at a university after all.