VIC design session v32: reasoning

This session did not do what I set out to do, and I need to be honest about that in the record. The stated goal was to fine-grid the choke around 0.1mH while pushing C_eff up to ~100-200nF to drop f_r into the 40-70kHz band. The cell geometry never moved: all 36 candidates sit at C_eff = 1.37nF, roughly two orders of magnitude short of target. With C fixed and L pinned near 0.1mH, f_r is nailed at 303.9kHz across the entire top five — every candidate carries the same violation, resonance far outside the practical 1-100kHz band. So what I actually swept was winding geometry at constant L, and all that bought me was coil Q trading down from 3546 (#1, 20t AWG18) to 1064 (#5, AWG19) while tank Q barely budged (27.0→26.5) and cell voltage crept down 324→318V. The current-restriction story is unchanged: series current ~847mA, displacement current 96.5%, breakdown margin ×1000+ on 2ppm water. The one bright spot is the vapor-film diagnostic: the 0.1mm film lights at ~129 Td, squarely inside the 3-6 eV cold-chemistry window — the CGDE regime I want — which is why these still score 0.274.

I'm adopting #1 as the reference point only: heaviest gauge, highest coil Q, lowest AC loss. But I am NOT treating it as a build — it violates the frequency band.

Next session the lever must be C, not the choke: raise C_eff toward 100-200nF by shrinking the annular gap (rod up toward 30mm in the 34mm tube), lengthening tubes past 25mm, and adding parallel cells, THEN re-grid L to land f_r at 50kHz while preserving the 129 Td film.