Billion Degrees! Have we stumbled upon something new?

I think temperature affecting decay rates can be eliminated. Since higher temperature is just faster motion of particles, and since motion is relative, the particles aren't moving relative to themselves and their decay rates won't change. We may observe a slower decay rate because of relativistic effects, but the actual decay rate won't have changed.Collisions with other particles could cause nuclear reactions, but that's not the same thing as decay. And the possibility of nuclear reactions can be checked by looking for neutron emissions and for decay products.Measuring such high temperatures is not simple, and a number of assumptions are involved, probably including the radius of the tungsten wires. Given that their machine is operating outside of its expected range, it seems more likely that they'll find a measurement or calibration problem rather than new physics.--Percy

I think so, too, and it seems consistent with the excerpt you posted from Z machine exceeds two billion degrees Kelvin: hotter than the interiors of stars: So at least part of the way they calculate temperature is based on how fast the plasma collapses. I don't even know how to think about the microturbulent magnetic fields mentioned in the article, but particles influenced by magnetic fields move in predictable ways, so they should be able to test whether that's the case.The article makes it sound like the mystery of where the additional energy came from is the item of most significance, but we can probably safely assume that the "no free lunch" laws of thermodynamics still hold, and if we assume there's no new physics (I mean fundamental physics, not "Gee, we had no idea particles in microturbulent magnetic fields at high temperatures would behave this way") then the most interesting result is the ability to achieve temperatures of billions of degrees, because it's the inability to continuously maintain very high temperatures that has kept fusion from becoming a commercial possibility for power generation.--Percy