The second post in a series; the first is here.
So a plasmoid is a (more-or-less) stable configuration of plasma, currents, and magnetic fields; the most well-know example is ball lightning. Plasmoids require energy to form, and typically emit energy, by glowing or ionizing matter around them; when the remaining energy is too small to maintain the conditions of the stable cofiguration, the plasmoid typically explodes, releasing all the rest of its energy at once.
Giant multi-billion experimental fusion reactors use extremely high-temperature plasmas in configurations as much like plasmoids as possible, but they are not technically plasmoids, because they do not self-sustain and require the input of substantial energy (and externally supplied magnetic fields) to operate. There are currently about 45 companies trying to build fusion reactors, up from 10 a decade ago. Fusion in plasmas has been achieved many times: the trick everyone is trying for is to get more energy out than you put in.
A condensed plasmoid, on the other hand, is something closer to the size of your hand than the Eiffel Tower. Indeed the ones that we think we have seen generating more energy than they lose are microscopic or not much bigger. Sometimes, if this interpretation is correct, they remain stable for days, generating substantial energy with no external energy input. How can this be if it is so difficult to get a big tokamak to do the same thing?
We believe that the key is that the condensed plasmoids are cold. Heat (and the big reactors are intentionally trying for millions of degrees) increases pressure, and thus fights against the squeeze of the ζ-pinch effect. If a plasmoid is microscopic, it will lose heat fast through radiation. Of course normally it would then simply revert to normal matter, like a spark in a bug-zapper. But if the right combination of (very high) current, (fairly low) pressure, chemistry, and so forth happens, you can get a runaway ζ-pinch which magnetically squeezes the conducting path to atomic scales, which in turn raises the magnetic force squeezing it to astronomical levels.
The resulting plasmoid is called "condensed" by Jaitner and his group; I think the choice of the word is inspired. Previous descriptions either don't capture the real dynamics of the phenomenon ("EVs", "charge clusters") or anything significant at all ("exotic vacuum objects," "strange radiation"). Condensation in the formation process reasonably describes the reduction of the conducting path to atomic dimensions, and not incidentally forces nuclei that have been captured by the excess of negative charge into considerably closer proximity than they could be found even in normal, solid, "condensed," matter. This is not your grandfather's plasma.
... and if it should turn out that the core current in a condensed plasmoid is in fact superconducting, the word "condense" is already used in the theory of superconductivity to refer to the same phenomenon.
Epistemic status check: condensed plasmoids are undeniably a real thing. They have been observed by many experimenters and were studied extensively by Kenneth Shoulders in the 80s (he called them "EVs"). If you wish to study them yourself, extensive and detailed information can be found in US patent US5018180A. (But be careful -- the Russian researchers call them "strange radiation" for a reason.) The physical theory and interpretation here are new in detail but phenomena suggesting nuclear activity, including elemental transmutation, radiation (including hard X-rays), and inexplicably large energy generation, have been experimentally verified again and again.
The result is a state where the nuclei are cold, by processes reminiscent of laser cooling in optical tweezers, but at the same time forced together close enough for fusion to occur. What then?
Normally you would expect that from fusion (of anything to the left of iron-56 in the curve of binding energy) you would get energetic nucleus fragments (protons, neutrons, alpha particles, etc) and serious gamma rays out as a result. You can fire basketballs into a trash can with a catapult but don't expect them to make a nice soft landing and sit there. Here's where we get to the second part of my revelations at IWAHLM-16 -- the progress in the quantum mechanics of down-conversion by the MIT team. What that means is that there are recognized pathways for a giant dollop of energy not to explode a nucleus the way it normally would, but to parcel out its energy to a host of smaller recipients, like the electrons forming the current of the plasmoid.
After this, it's all details. The devil is in them, of course, but key elements of the physics may be coming into sight. The condensation of the plasmoid is in a runaway mode until the electrons can't be squeezed any further. At that point the plasmoid is negatively charged and nuclei are attracted into it, where they may be squeezed close enough together to fuse. The plasmoid, which if it isn't technically superconducting in the condensed state is doing something quantum mechanical enough to act like it, supports the down-conversion dynamics. So each, or at at least enough of, the nuclear fusions add energy to the plasmoid current, which keeps it going or can even produce more energy than went in.
Once we get a solid understanding of the physics, our new energy revolution will be about where the Industrial Revolution was in 1643 when Torricelli invented the barometer. Technological progress moves faster now, though, so we might live to see some useful results. Like megawatt generators you can carry in a pocket that use (tiny amounts of) air as fuel.
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