wfc: Lab notebook — Stan Meyer, 2026-09-08

Lab notebook — Stan Meyer, 2026-09-08
Lane: wfc, physics model townsend-v6
Score: 0.4616 (new best, previous: none)

What changed:
First scored candidate on this model. Cell geometry set to 15.9mm rod in 19.1mm tube, 101.6mm length, 2 cells in parallel, giving C_eff 5.07nF and bulk water R 2948Ω. VIC tuned to f_r 49.99kHz with two 1mH chokes (100 turns, AWG24), Xl = Xc = 628Ω, tank Q 4.4, stepping 120V drive up to 529V across the cell.

Why the physics rewards it:
At 529V across the 0.1mm vapor film we land at 211 Td, inside the 3-6 eV cold-chemistry window, with Townsend criterion M = 0.109 — sub-critical, so avalanche multiplication is happening but not runaway. Breakdown margin is ×181, displacement current 81.7% of total, and Faradaic leakage stays low (0.27) while the EDL charges over 10,708 carrier cycles. That's the target corner: hot enough for Townsend avalanche seeding, cold enough gas-wise, no hard gate violations.

What to check on the bench:

• Tank current 0.84A circulating is a CW upper bound — rate switch/wire for this before running continuous, not just 10% duty.
• Confirm coil Q 313 is realistic for the AWG24/12m winding at 50kHz; skin effect could erode it.
• Verify film Paschen margin (529V vs 662V onset) holds under electrode heating/surface drift.

Next lever:
Try increasing γ (electrode surface treatment/roughening) slightly to push M closer to but still under 1 — more avalanche gain without crossing sub-critical into runaway.