ATP Grant Application with GMU
Research work on Focus Fusion included efforts to develop an Advanced Technology Program (ATP) grant application with GMU. The application focused on the DPF as a source of X-rays. The collaboration with GMU was necessary as university partners are an asset in applying for this type of grant.
January, 2004 - ATP Grants for DPF Research
For the ATP grant, a DPF can function as the source of very intense x-rays that can be used for non-destructive testing and inspection of large objects, such as girders or trailers. The magnetic effects calculations indicate that once very high magnetic field are achieved, the x-ray output could be very rapidly varied from 10-20keV energy all the way up to 100-200keV, a “tuning” ability that would be unique and useful for the above applications. Of course the work needed to develop such a source overlaps almost 100% with the work needed to develop a focus fusion reactor.
A Strategic Alliance with GMU
But to get an ATP grant it is extremely desirable to have a university junior partner. This is where the GMU connection comes in. The researchers we are working with there have become interested in a long-time cosmological puzzle. While the redshift of the brightest galaxies is very well correlated with their distance (as measured by their apparent brightness), this is not the case for quasars, whose redshifts seem almost random. One possible explanation of this is that the quasars have some intrinsic redshift mechanism, in addition to a distance-related redshift. This would presumably be a plasma-related effect. One possible explanation is the Wolf effect, discovered theoretically be Emil Wolf 20 years ago. This effect shows that in a rapidly fluctuating random medium, light scattered off inhomogeneities in the refractive index will lose energy—be red shifted. The ratio of redshift to wavelength will be independent of wavelength, just as in a Doppler or cosmological shift.
Until recently this effect was never observed in the laboratory. However, recently Hem Kandpal, an Indian colleague of the group at GMU, observed a redshift that could not be attributed to the Doppler effect in a discharge in the laboratory. This was reported, among other places, at the workshop last July in Italy on Alternative Cosmologies. The GMU group wanted to further investigate this phenomenon, but did not have funding. Since the effect is independent of wavelength, this would potentially be a way of altering the wavelength of x-rays, and be a very good way to fine tune broad x-ray sources like the DPF. So I suggested we combine the projects into a single research proposal for producing a powerful and versatile x-ray source using the DPF to generate x-rays and the Wolf effect for tuning the output x-rays.