3 ms·
> The resulting deuterium plasma would be non-neutral Meaning, it would be negatively charged because of the added electrons? My guess is, you want the plasma
by ScottBurson 8y ago
> The resulting deuterium plasma would be non-neutral
Meaning, it would be negatively charged because of the added electrons?
My guess is, you want the plasma to be neutral. (The term I've seen is "div-free" — you want the divergence of the E field to be everywhere zero.) But maybe removing the excess electrons wouldn't be too hard.
Anyway, if you want to chat about this more, feel free to email me — address in profile.
- pontifier 8y agoThe nuclei would be positive ions... I don't believe free electrons would be stable in a penning trap set up for positive ions. The strongly positive endcaps (my guess is 60kv) would make it unlikely that they would stay in the same region as the positive ions, though I'm not sure. The goal is for the ions to act like individual ballistic deuterium nuclei flying along a cyclotron trajectory. The density should be very low most of the time, but spike dramatically very briefly. That line between high density and acting like individual particles is one of the reasons this device is difficult for me to model.