Plate i · substrate overview · graphite

Plasmagicians — Substrate Spec

a Bret-Victor explorable-explanations wiki on a Rust + WebGPU + WASM substrate, anchored on the PPPL first-year graduate programme

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A Bret-Victor-style explorable-explanations wiki on a Rust + WASM + WebGPU substrate, anchored on the PPPL first-year graduate programme (AST 551 / AST 552 and Generals prep), with a heritage archive of the original 2006 PlasmaWiki — which Danielle Fong and Abe named at Princeton. Authored at the substrate level by the operator; populated at the plate level by a physics-specialist Opus 4.8 max agent running in a custom harness with thinking-block visibility.

where we stand

✓ shipped · solvers crate (Rust, 8/8 tests, 18 KB WASM) — caught a 1000× error in v1 draft
✓ shipped · four spec documents (plate package · hyperstack blocks · solvers catalog · authoring prompt)
✓ shipped · licence.md (founder CC BY 4.0 + MIT, fair-use stance, 2006 lineage acknowledged)
✓ shipped · this graphite spec preview — Britannica plate engraved on lit concrete
✓ shipped · PlasmaWiki mirror complete — 3,004 files / 951 HTML articles / 80 MB
⏳ next · scripts/preview-plate.sh · plates/01-nlambda3 · chrome-strip · KaTeX recovery
⏳ next · canvas substrate port from xanadu-cx (deferred — corpus first)

pivots that shaped this day's build

№	from	to
i	infinite-canvas wiki	readpath UI — smart-for-you order, snap-to-plate momentum, snap-out gesture
ii	editorial plates	Bret-Victor explorable explanations — every claim wired to a live model
iii	hand-authoring 8 plates	substrate for Opus 4.8 max agent in a custom harness
iv	vellum LightCell paper theme	graphite + spectral inks — Na yellow, Li red, white-hot · PPPL register
v	dense-Na cluster	AST 551 / 552 + Generals — hundreds of plates, agent fleet
vi	flat dark theme	fuckin' awesome — spectral glow, ray-traced light, graph paper, Britannica register

plate package spec

Each plate is a directory, not a single file — because the substrate is HTML + WASM + WebGPU + Rust + Markdown + WGSL. A plate brings whatever the physics demands.

plates/<id-slug>/
├── plate.toml                ← required: manifest
├── prose.md                  ← optional: markdown + KaTeX + explorable refs
├── citations.toml            ← optional: overflow citation list
├── explorables/              ← optional: live interactive demos
│   ├── <name>.toml          ← per-explorable manifest (hyperstack blocks)
│   ├── <name>.wgsl          ← optional: custom WebGPU shader
│   └── <name>.rs            ← optional: custom Rust solver (extras crate)
├── assets/                   ← optional: images, datasets
└── render.html               ← optional escape hatch

plate.toml — the manifest

[plate]
id    = "01-nlambda3-cooperative-threshold"
title = "When Nλ³/64 > 1"
subtitle = "The cooperative-emission threshold for dense atomic vapor"
cluster = "dense-na"
status = "published"
authored_by = "Danielle Fong"   # or "agent:opus-4.8-max:physicist-v1"
syllabus = ["AST552:radiative_transport", "Generals:plasma_waves"]

[ancestor]
references = [
  "archive/qed.princeton.edu/main/PlasmaWiki/Mean_free_path.html",
]

[rails]
on = [
  { rail = "dense-na-readpath",   position = 1 },
  { rail = "radiative-transport", position = 4 },
]

[citations.molisch1998]
authors = "Molisch, A. F. & Oehry, B. P."
year = 1998
title = "Radiation Trapping in Atomic Vapours"
publisher = "Oxford University Press"

Plate-as-directory feels right for this aesthetic — or does the agent want a single self-contained file per plate?

a live explorable — proof of substrate

Every numerical claim below comes from a Rust function compiled to WASM and called by the slider handlers in the left gutter. Slide a knob; math re-typesets; the regime label flips at the threshold; the mini canvas redraws. Reading is doing.

$n\,\lambda^{3}/64 \;\gtrless\; 1 \quad\Leftrightarrow\quad n \;\gtrless\; n_{\text{crit}} = \dfrac{64}{\lambda^{3}}$

Fig. I. Saturated sodium vapour density (amber) crosses the cooperative-emission threshold (incandescent rule) at the regime boundary. Scrub the gutter sliders to step through the phase plane.

The substrate primitive: slider in left gutter → WASM solver call → math + canvas + label update in lockstep. Every plate's explorables vary the solver / inputs / displays while keeping this same shape. The agent learns the shape once and replicates it.

PlasmaWiki — the heritage trellis

The 2006 wiki (which you and Abe named) has been fully mirrored from w3.pppl.gov/~dboyle/PlasmaWiki/ into sites/plasmagicians-v2/archive/ as the heritage trellis the new wiki grows on. The mirror finished while this preview was being engraved.

statistic	value
Files mirrored	3,004
HTML articles	951
Total size	80 MB
Date range	2006–2017 · AST551 / AST554 / MG present
Categories	Single Particle Motion · Classical Mechanics · Electromagnetism · MHD · Kinetic Theory · Plasma Waves · Generals · Prelims · …
Licence (footer claim)	CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 — 2009 export artefact
Licence (founder intent)	CC BY 4.0 + MIT — reaffirmed in licence.md

Next: strip MediaWiki chrome (sidebar / login / edit links / social bookmarks) and replace texvc math PNGs with live KaTeX rendering — the original LaTeX is preserved in each alt=. A significant typography upgrade for free.

corpus scope — AST 551 / 552 + Generals

Per operator: the corpus is anchored on the first-year Princeton graduate programme. AST 551 (Introduction to Plasma Physics I) + AST 552 (II) as the spine, with simultaneous tagging for Generals (qualifying-exam) preparation. Approximately 150–300 plates at full coverage, written by the physics-specialist agent fleet.

provisional cluster map

cluster	anchor course	≈plates
Single-particle motion · drifts · gyro · adiabatic invariants	AST 551 weeks 1–3	15
Plasma waves · Langmuir · ion-acoustic · Alfvén · R L O X	AST 551 / 552 wk 4–8	25
MHD · ideal · resistive · force-free · equilibria · stability	AST 552 first half	25
Kinetic theory · Vlasov · Landau · Fokker-Planck · BBGKY	AST 552 second half	20
Radiative transport — dense-Na cluster (canonical)	extension · LightCell	10
Diagnostics · Thomson · interferometry · Langmuir probes · ECE	AST · Generals	15
Transport · classical · neoclassical · anomalous · turbulent	AST 552 · Generals	15
ICF + MCF · tokamak · stellarator · ICF basics · FRC · MTF	AST · survey	20
Boundary plasmas · SOL · divertor	experimental focus	10
Lab + computational methods · PIC · MHD codes	AST · projects	10
LightCell + modern extensions · chemiluminescence · anti-entropy	operator corpus	10

Total target: ≈150–300 plates. Agent-fleet authoring with the operator watching thinking blocks in a custom harness — a multi-month build, not a single-day push.

your read on

Graphite + spectral glow + Britannica register — is it fuckin' awesome enough? Or push harder still?
Both gutters interactive — left sliders + live readouts + mini-canvas + spectral palette; right rail-progress + ToC + cites + archive ancestors. Symmetry working?
Topbar running-head in small caps, italic anchors — sufficiently Britannica? Or too restrained?
Demo column treatment — gravure-shadowed canvas with figure caption — feels right?
AST 551 / 552 + Generals scope right? Wider (557 / 559)? Tighter?
Reference plate 01-nlambda3 — author it now by my hand as the benchmark, or let the agent's first run be the bootstrap?

※ flag specific changes — the visual + layout decisions here propagate to every plate, so they need to be right before the agent starts authoring at scale.

plasmagicians.com — substrate spec — plate i