Thinking out loud
about hard problems.
Essays, derivations, and notes on fusion physics, instrumentation, and science communication. For the denser technical material, see the digital garden ↗.
The Lawson criterion from first principles. Where each confinement approach sits in triple-product space. Why the current moment is different from previous moments of optimism.
Invented to solve cubics. Ended up as the native language of quantum mechanics, signal processing, and electromagnetic wave propagation. Why?
Since 1950, fusion has been 30 years away. Walking through why people thought it would be easy, what experimental results forced the timeline back, and what actually changed in 2022.
More coming as projects develop
In the meantime, the digital garden has working notes and half-formed ideas across physics, math, and engineering.