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artis
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This is less of a nuclear physics question and more of an EE one, but I think this is the right place for it.
There is a startup called Zap Energy and their approach to fusion is to create a inertial confinement pinch with an electrical discharge.
This is a bit similar to what the Sandia labs are doing only they use a metal liner as their imploding piston.
Now as you can see from the diagram attached below, the approach is to use a cylindrical volume with a central electrode and the outer cylinder wall as the second electrode. Due to a high PD across the two electrode a discharge forms and due to B field the discharge is driven along until it moves axially inwards from all sides.
The thing that I can't believe is how can one make the electrical discharge symmetrical from all sides. One has to create a sheet/plane/film like discharge that is 3D and fast moving without the discharge to collapse into a single rod/lighting like discharge, how can one do this?
Electrical discharges from what I know are fundamentally unstable, or is it that the current is so large that the discharge has to be film like as the large current would be too large for a rod like discharge?
There is a startup called Zap Energy and their approach to fusion is to create a inertial confinement pinch with an electrical discharge.
This is a bit similar to what the Sandia labs are doing only they use a metal liner as their imploding piston.
Now as you can see from the diagram attached below, the approach is to use a cylindrical volume with a central electrode and the outer cylinder wall as the second electrode. Due to a high PD across the two electrode a discharge forms and due to B field the discharge is driven along until it moves axially inwards from all sides.
The thing that I can't believe is how can one make the electrical discharge symmetrical from all sides. One has to create a sheet/plane/film like discharge that is 3D and fast moving without the discharge to collapse into a single rod/lighting like discharge, how can one do this?
Electrical discharges from what I know are fundamentally unstable, or is it that the current is so large that the discharge has to be film like as the large current would be too large for a rod like discharge?