Recent content by Aidan Davis

Thanks! Im doing this because it seems like an amazing learning experience. I can learn from many fields all at the same time, and not to mention the skills of gathering money and experienced people to learn from. With my background in maths, this felt like a physical continuation of that.

Hi, This is extremely late, but whatever. 30 KeV refers to energy per particle in the plasma. Your formula is correct on a per particle basis, and it gives 4.643*10^-23 K increase per particle of plasma. Extrapolating to, for example, on mole of plasma, gives 27.962 K increase. These numbers...

Yes, but the gamow gives probably of fusion upon collision while rutherford gives cross section for collision, so their product should be the cross section for fusion. Thanks for all the help!

Exactly. And as for the mention of explosions and cash magically appearing: curse my sarcastic sense of humor.

* It seems to fit the data* (Pressed upload by mistake)

The gamow sommerfeld factor gives the probability of fusion for two distant particles on a collision course. It is derived here in the context of the sun: http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~gk/A403/fusion.pdf Is that the weird definition your talking about? It seems to fit.

I've got four whole years if I want this done by high school. That's plenty of knowledge and more given how quickly I can learn. I also have people that can guide me along so as to not create too big of an accidental explosion. I understand this is not an easy, or cheap task. I am willing to do...

I have goals pretty close...ok, almost exactly the same... as yours. I am in high school, researching this stuff like a madman, with the goal of fusion. I've been looking more into beam-target fusion using a cyclotron, as one can achieve an optimally powerful beam with just a few inch radius...

There was a vial of liquid, but I couldn't very well see what it was. Are you preforming D-D or D-H fusions using the D/H in water as a target? Or is all the fusion resultant from the particles within the vacuum chamber?

At a reasonable beam energy, the rutherford cross section reaches tens of barns per Z2. Thats plenty to get a few collisions out of the beam in a reasonably sized target before the deuteron escapes. Is the fusion cross section just the rutherford cross section multiplied by the probability of...

Oh, so at KeV energies the coloumb force dominates? The collision of fast positive particle (in this case deuteron) into a stationary positive target (nuclei) is rutherford scattering, or are there other significant effects?

Ok. So the incoming hydrogen beam hits the atoms proportional to their relative molar density? For example, a CaH2 would experience 2/3 of (initial) collisions be with hydrogen, while something like LiOH would experience 1/3 of collisions be with hydrogen? Or do the heavier elements have...

And if the C 12 doesn't inhibit the fusion reactions, then would any other isotope? Why use polyethylene when there are hydrogen compounds witn much higher melting points? CaH2 melts at 816 °C, compared to polyethylene's 115-135 °C.

Ah. So even if the C 12 wouldn't react, would it inhibit reactions?

Thanks. So I guess a pure hydrogen target is the only way without sacrificing a large amount of potential fusions to other elements which are too large and resist fusion, or worrying about changing the phase of the target.