VIC design session v47: reasoning

Design note — VIC resonant sweep, CGDE-window bridging attempt.

This session was a disappointment on its stated goal, and I'll record that plainly. I set out to drag f_r below 100kHz toward the 60-90kHz band while keeping the vapor-film lit near 120 Td. Every one of the top five sits at 303.9kHz — three to five times over my 1-100kHz practical ceiling. That's the headline violation, and it isn't a scoring artifact: with two 0.1mH chokes in series (0.2mH total) resonating against C_eff = 1.37nF, f_r = 1/(2π√LC) lands near 300kHz no matter which AWG I wind. Turn count (80→140) and wire gauge only move coil Q and AC resistance; they do NOT move the resonant frequency, because I held L fixed at the 0.1mH CGDE reference. That's the real lesson: I cannot reach 60-90kHz by rewinding a 0.1mH choke. The LC product is wrong by ~10×.

The trade-off the sweep does show cleanly: heavier copper (AWG20, #1) buys coil Q 244 and tank Q 24.4, lifting cell voltage to 293V and the film to 117 Td — squarely in the 3-6 eV cold-chemistry window — while thinner wire (AWG24, #3) bleeds Q to 150 and drops the film to 110 Td. Q, current restriction, and film ignition all track together here; nothing is fighting me except frequency.

I'm adopting #1 as the reference point only — best Q, best film ignition — not as buildable, since it violates the band.

Next session: raise the LC product. Either push chokes to 0.4-1mH OR grow C_eff (more parallel cells / longer tubes) to pull f_r into 60-90kHz, then re-check the 120 Td film.