Re:Chinese Tokamak reaches over 100M degrees
by metaphor on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @01:48AM
(#18448053)
The Wiki entry also mentioned "two effects that lower the actual temperature needed", one being average kinetic energy and the other quantum tunneling "if [nuclei] have nearly enough energy." The term "nearly" isn't precisely defined though.
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Re:Chinese Tokamak reaches over 100M degrees
by monochromatic on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @08:28AM
(#18449662)
There isn’t a hard limit. But as you get farther away from the amount of energy that would be “enough” without tunneling, the probability of tunneling falls off exponentially.
Re:Chinese Tokamak reaches over 100M degrees
by gwillen on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @05:22PM
(#18454705)
Quantum tunneling effects are generally (maybe always?) exponentially unlikely, in the sense that the probability of tunneling will decay exponentially with the discrepancy between energy-available and energy-required.