PNPI Gatchina Plasmoid Program
Summary
PNPI Gatchina (Shabanov, Zherebtsov; Harbin HIT collaboration): gas-discharge generation of long-lived luminous plasma objects, near-100% reproducible. 2022: ~400 ms standard lifetime; new leader-streamer-free regime 15–17 mm / 90 ms. NO weapons content. Register C05/C09. CPW campaign 2026-08-17
Deep Dive Analysis
Registered as C05/C09 (merged rows — same facility, personnel, and topic) in the CPW conceptual-weapons register (v0.7). The Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI, Gatchina) program generates long-lived luminous plasma objects by gas discharge, achieving near-100% reproducibility — an exceptional figure in ball-lightning laboratory research. The 2022 parameter set (PNPI/Harbin HIT collaboration, documented in a 13-Jul-2022 PNPI press release and 1000-fps + 400–500 nm filtered imaging) reports standard plasmoid lifetime of about 400 ms, plus a newly identified leader-streamer-free regime producing 15–17 mm objects with ~90 ms lifetime. Earlier Physics-Uspekhi 62 (2019) reporting anchors the program's public start. ADJUDICATION: the program carries NO weapons content in any open source — it is a laboratory ball-lightning generator program, graded with the morphology-only analog class in the CPW-07 matrix (the objects look orb-like but are cm-scale, sub-second, and non-lethal). It exemplifies the register's structural finding that morphology and capability never co-locate: the most orb-like objects are precisely the least weapon-like. Personnel: Shabanov, Zherebtsov; international collaboration with Harbin Institute of Technology. Zero patents held by the principals in the plasmoid class (census CPW-06).
Key Findings
- ▸ Registered as C05/C09 (merged rows — same facility, personnel, and topic) in the CPW conceptual-weapons register (v0.
- ▸ The Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI, Gatchina) program generates long-lived luminous plasma objects by gas discharge, achieving near-100% reproducibility — an exceptional figure in ball-lightning laboratory research.
- ▸ The 2022 parameter set (PNPI/Harbin HIT collaboration, documented in a 13-Jul-2022 PNPI press release and 1000-fps + 400–500 nm filtered imaging) reports standard plasmoid lifetime of about 400 ms, plus a newly identified leader-streamer-free regime producing 15–17 mm objects with ~90 ms lifetime.
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