Reply To: The North Atlantic Current

[Brian H]

Tulse wrote:

As I understand it, the ability of the pulsed FF system to recharge its own capacitors and refire indefinitely means it has infinite Q, the ideal. Perhaps I’m wrong about that, but that’s how I understand it so far.

But that would be true of any over-unity fusion device — surely for FF one would determine Q on the basis of the energy balance for an individual shot.
My understanding is “ignition refers to an infinite Q, that is, a self-sustaining plasma where the losses are made up for by fusion power without any external input“, but I’m not sure what constitutes ignition in a pulsed system. However, once the initial blip is fed into the electrodes by the capacitors, there is no external power required from the grid.