Interesting idea.  Are you thinking of the protons being ejected from the CNT 
like toothpaste as the outer surface is compressed?

I assume you are referring to the large current as being a large time changing 
current instead of a DC one.

Dave



-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Walker <[email protected]>
To: vortex-l <[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, Jul 18, 2012 10:01 am
Subject: [Vo]:z-pinch compression


In an earlier post I speculated on the possibility of a current of electrons 
flowing along a hollow, superconducting wire inducing a current of protons 
within the wire (via Lenz's law, although I did not know that this was what I 
was invoking).  I have since read descriptions to the effect that the magnetic 
field at the center of a hollow wire with current flowing along it will be 
zero.  Another complexity is that there are two types of superconductors -- in 
type I superconductors, magnetic fields are expelled (the superconductor is 
diamagnetic); in type II superconductors, the ones that reach higher 
temperatures, there is an effect called the paramagnetic Meissner effect, which 
causes a superconductor to be permeable to magnetism within limits of field 
strength.  It is not clear from this detail how the feasibility of such a 
current of protons would be affected, but the possibility of zero magnetic 
field is a strike against it.


There are, however, two other effects that can be considered -- the theta-pinch 
and z-pinch effects.  Theta-pinch confinement of a plasma comes about when 
current flows around the circumference of the confining volume. One individual 
speculated on the possibility of using theta-pinch confinement of a plasma to 
generate D+T fusion:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thet_pinch.png
http://lofi.forum.physorg.com/Fusion-By-Large-Linear-Theta-Pinch_18508.html


That does not obviously lend itself to the kinds of geometries we might 
speculate to exist in the nuclear active environment.  However, there is also 
the z-pinch effect, which appears to have been used to crush cans:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Z_pinch.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinch_(plasma_physics)#Crushing_cans_with_the_pinch_effect


I wonder whether a large enough current could cause a current carrying nanowire 
to implode, compressing the contents as it does.


Eric



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