Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Spheromaks for acceleration and focusing
Date: Feb 26, 3:06 pm
Poster: Scott Stephens

On Feb 26, 3:06 pm, Scott Stephens wrote:

Consider firing strings of positively charged spheromak plasmoids from 4 tetrahedral coaxial plasma guns towards the center of the fusor where they, locked and focused in line by their magnetic fields, compress and magnetically reconnect, unwind and explode.

I posted a link to electron storage ring paper and patent reference a few weeks ago. There is a web page about spheromaks at http://laser.swarthmore.edu/html/research/SSX/equilibrium/thesis_talk/05.formation.jpg and http://ve4xm.caltech.edu/Bellan_plasma_page/spheroma.htm

Marshall guns don't appear too difficult to build, being basically coaxial cavities that hold off 10KV. From what I gather, the spheromak needs enough positive ions to stabilize its charge. The higher the electron velocity, the fewer ions needed to stabilize it. And the less Bremstraalung losses from electrons swinging around (colliding with) ions and radiating power away. Eventually, relativistic self-focusing, and the mass difference between electrons and ions would separate them. Higher energy means less loss.

The relativistic electron rings are an extreme form of spheromak. They could be accelerated and maintained by microwave fields. I can see how alumina rod dielectric waveguides could keep electron rings centered and fluxed in the chamber, and help focus and accelerate the reaction plasma, like a stirring rod with traveling waves. The electrons need to be relativistic for the microwaves to 'grip' them and keep spinning, and to coral ions in the toroid's core. Rather than coaxial, a spherical plasma gun probably would be used to fire electron toroids.

Magnetic reconnection of the spheromak current sheets could be a way to cause a kind of low energy 'tunneling' fusion. In metastable atomic decay, flourescence and radioactive decay wave functions from many sources superimpose to create an unstable amplitude, resulting in energetic relaxation to a lower energy state. Probably would look like a jet shooting out. By 'unknotting' a spheromak, by bursting its magnetic bubble, the energy stored in the magnetic fields is released, a kind of exploding bullet. Magnetic reconnection is subject of considerable interest. It could be shear forces form a vortex with excellent focus.

Scott