Not only is there the cool picture, but the article seems to indicate that there's energy being used somewhere in this experiment that they can't account for. So the big question is, where is it coming from? The answer from the brain-boys? "Uh... we'll get back to you."
Wow. I don't know what to think. It almost sounds like a new form of power generation if they figure out where the energy came from and maintain its flow.
Actually, the energy wasn't created from some unknown source. The actual mechanism is not known. The energy is there in the reactions. But as any plasma physicist knows, you got a LOT of things going on in a plasma.
There's:
-Simulataneous emission and absorption of various radiation.
-Electrons and ions moving in opposite directions, with the electrons reacting to changes in the electromagnetic field inside the plasma being almost the speed of light.
-Ions moving about doing their own thing to an extent, but because of their mass, move very slowly and don't change their momentum as often as electrons.
-Collisions going on between electrons and electrons, and collisions going on between ions and ions; electron-ion collisions are very rare.
-Z-pinches are known for their ability to highly compress magnetic fields. The density inside can force the plasma to fuse with itself.
-Most of the energy going into the capacitor banks at that facility is going to drive the electrons in the plasma to heat up (and thus go faster). Relativistic effects can occur where radiation is lost and sometimes absorbed in mechanisms that aren't well understood.
-Not to mention the fact that resonances can form in the plasma that can provide constructive interference. (This is how some fusion devices work.)
-The magnetic fields inside the plasma can and do change rapidly. The electric fields can as well, but those drive currents in the plasma.
-There is high temperature chemistry and interactions with the walls that can change the properties of the plasma.
Check this out.
