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Arc Reactor Tony Stark (Marvel character) Concepts Theory and Theories Related Questions
What is the theory/concept behind the "Miniature Could an arc reactor be made?
Arc Reactor" built by Tony Stark? How did it work? Can we use an ARC reactor in real life?
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Mk 1 Arc Reactor.jpg
The full-sized arc reactor looks a lot like a toroidal "Tokomak" plasma
containment system for standard "hot fusion":
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Tony Stark (L) and Obadiah Stane (R) in front of Stark Industries' arc reactor
Real world equivalent: ITER fusion reactor
So what does the arc reactor's torus (donut) shape tell us? It means there are charged
particles moving in a circle, contained by a magnetic field. High-energy particles
usually have high energy because they're moving very fast, and magnetic fields can
curve the motion of charged particles. Curving the particles' motion into a circle
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keeps them in one place long enough to get them to collide.
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You may notice that current fusion reactor designs have a lot of magnet coils on the
outside of the torus, whereas the Stark Industries arc reactor has a viewing window.
Plasma containment is the single biggest challenge for hot fusion, but the arc reactor
makes it look effortless. From this we can conclude that a key technology in the full-
scale arc reactor is a way to contain the reaction in a self-sustaining ring. This
line of reasoning is definitely backed up by the toroidal field lines drawn in the Stark
Industries arc reactor blueprints:
Runs low on power at inconvenient times, meaning it must have some sort of
fuel or consumed charge
Palladium has been proposed as a substrate for "cold" fusion that does not require
hot plasmas and containment toroids, but this concept is pretty widely discredited in
the real world. Palladium does, however, have some interesting capture and decay
properties. Wikipedia: Isotopes of palladium
Palladium isotope Pd-103 produces Rh-103 (rhodium) via electron capture. This
means an inner electron is absorbed by the nucleus, merging with a proton to
produce a neutron and an energetic photon -- a gamma ray.
Another isotope, Pd-107, produces Ag-107 (silver) via beta decay, releasing an
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electron when a neutron turns into a proton. (This is kind of the opposite reaction as
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the above.) Now, in real-world physics, the electrons balance the resulting atomic
nuclei -- silver and rhodium have different numbers of protons from palladium, and
the produced/consumed electrons just balance out the proton count so there is no net
flow of electricity.
I propose that Howard Stark found a way (using comic-book physics) to utilize
the beta decay of Pd-107 ions as an electron source for the electron capture of Pd-
103, thereby producing an electric circuit between two different radioactive
isotopes. Pd-103 is very radioactive (17 day half-life) compared to Pd-107 (6.5 million
year half-life) so there would need to be dramatically more of the heavier isotope to
compensate for the disparity in decay rates.
The palladium core of the device would most likely be Pd-107, which emits high-
energy electrons as it decays into silver. This is a pretty stable isotope that we would
expect to be present in the normal (non-separated) palladium that Tony might
salvage from a conventional weapon.
Since we know the device uses charged particles travelling within a ring of
electromagnets, I surmise that a tiny amount of Pd-103 is ionized by an electric arc
(thus the reactor's name, and start-up power requirement), which then allows Pd-103+
to be circulated at high velocity within the outer ring of the device. The ionization
acts to delay the electron capture step until the atom encounters a free electron, and
the high kinetic energy due to velocity increases the chances of electron capture
occurring once an electron is encountered. In effect, the radioactive decay of Pd-103
can be started, stopped, and throttled by the device simply by controlling the
ionization and circulation of the Pd-103.
The device's geometry and electromagnetic fields route the high-energy electrons
from the Pd-107 core towards the outer ring. There the electrons are captured by high-
energy Pd-103 ions. This electron capture process emits gamma rays, which are
deflected inward to catalyze the beta decay of the Pd-107 core. We have some good
evidence for this gamma ray emission, because the suit's chestpiece unibeam weapon
is clearly an emission of a large number of high-energy photons directly from the arc
reactor. Normally, the gamma rays are directed inward to catalyze the device's
operation, but they can be directed outward in a concentrated energy beam weapon:
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Sandman vs Iron-Man
So to summarize: electrons project outward from the inner core, and gamma rays
project inward from the outer ring. Because this electron/photon counterflow creates
a deficit of electrons (relative to protons) in the core, a massive electrostatic potential
is developed and the palladium core attracts lower-energy electrons from the suit's
wiring. The ejection of electrons from the core towards the rim of the device
produces an electrical cell capable of generating enormous voltage and current.
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In the outer ring, the high-energy free electrons collide with high-energy Pd-
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103+ ions. This causes instantaneous electron capture and gamma ray
emission. The gamma rays are deflected inward towards the core, thus
catalyzing further electron emission and producing a self-sustaining
reaction. Note that the reaction is self-sustaining, but very slow while the
reactor is idle.
The electron flow from the inner core to the outer core creates an electric
potential difference. When a circuit is created through the suit's electrical
loads, the outer ring has an excess of electrons and the inner core has a
shortage of electrons. This creates current.
The palladium slowly converts to Rh-103 and Ag-107, and the reactor runs out
of power when the palladium is fully consumed.
Top view of my concept vs the Stark Industries blueprint, with cut-away side view below.
I can't speak for the next-gen "new element" arc reactor, but presumably it replaces
the palladium isotopes with a hypothetical element that also undergoes gamma-ray-
mediated beta decay, but in a less-toxic and higher-output fashion.
Several other lines of evidence also support this type of nuclear decay / electron flux
reaction being the mechanism for the arc reactor. First, the reactor's glow:
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It could be caused by the ionization arc, but I think Cherenkov radiation is a much
better explanation. This is a special type of light emission that occurs when an
energetic particle (such as electron) enters a medium (like water or air) at a speed
faster than the speed of light in that medium. The high-energy electron flux within
the arc reactor would be a natural fit to generate this effect. This is a picture of an
actual nuclear reactor producing Cherenkov radiation:
Wikipedia
Notice the similarities? Unlike electrical arcs, the light from Cherenkov radiation is
quiet, cool-blue, and fricken' awesome. This is a no-brainer -- the arc reactor's glow is
definitely being produced by high-energy electron flux.
Another aspect of the original model palladium arc reactor was poisoning due to
"palladium toxicity". It's very possible that palladium is simply being ejected from the
device into Tony's blood by all the high-energy collisions going on, but this doesn't
explain the freaky circuit-looking lines on his chest, and it doesn't explain why
doctors can't help him.
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Palladium.jpg
I have a theory that fits the symptoms better. Remember, the proposed palladium
decay reactions produce rhodium and silver. Excess internal silver is known to
stain skin blue:
Rhodium compounds also stain skin, and are highly toxic. (Chemical properties,
Health and Environmental effects ) In fact, because most people have essentially
zero exposure to rhodium, the toxicity of rhodium is very poorly-understood. This
perfectly explains why Tony didn't seek help from the medical establishment for his
accumulated heavy metal toxicity -- because he knew the doctors wouldn't know how
to deal with rhodium poisoning. Tony Stark didn't have simple palladium
poisoning, he had "palladium decay-product" poisoning!
So you see, everything fits together perfectly. The evidence all points towards the
arc reactor relying on a Pd-103/Pd-107 radio-isotopic decay cell to produce
electrical current. I will start working on my own arc reactor prototype and will post
updates when I produce a working replica.
683.8k views · View 4.5k Upvoters · View Sharers · Answer requested by Vijay AJ
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What is an arc reactor?
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What is the theory /concept behind the miniature arc reactor?
What is the status of Tony Stark's arc reactor in the Marvel universe? Is the tech behind it
kept secret by Tony?
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