Hello guys, it's been a long time, I stopped posting way back when b/c no new news about Polywell and I thought it was hitting a dead end. Anyway, lately I've been playing around with AIs online, so just for fun I told Grok about an old thought experiment I had for a virtual Polywell fusor. I might have added a new twist to it, but Grok got all excited about it and kept telling me I should run it past people more in the know than I am.
The idea was to create a virtual polywell, not just virtual cathode but virtual coils by firing 6 Spheromaks toward each other in a disposable vacuum sealed cartridge nested inside a larger vacuum chamber. Maybe have an electron gun to create the virtual cathode but as the toroidal plasma magnetic fields decay ions jet outward while electrons inward along the axis toward the center would create the virtual cathode on their own. Follow up with 8 Spheromaks fired into the corner cusps both plugging them, adding electrons and fuel, and creating a POPs shockwave into the core. Added benefit would be that as the Spheromaks are moving towards each other they would create a field reverse configuration to enhance stability. Cartridge would be one shot disposable, containing cheap plasma guns, made with cheap material with inside coating of Boron or Lithium depending on fuel. Grok ran its own numbers and claimed it would take 340 MJ of input power but claimed it could make Q > 3 to 30.