Electron direct conversion — efficiently collecting the electron component of the exhaust — is one of the burner's two named closure gates, alongside the plug density ratio. The programme states it as a gate that must be demonstrated, not as a capability it assumes.
Collecting the directed ion energy is comparatively well understood; doing the same for the electron stream at high efficiency is not yet demonstrated at the burner's parameters. Because the converter's overall efficiency feeds directly into the engineering gain, electron direct conversion is a genuine gate on closure, and the design record names it as one.
Naming the converter as a gate — rather than folding an assumed efficiency into the ledger — is what keeps the burner's closure claim honest. It tells experimentalists exactly which converter demonstration unlocks the plant, and it keeps the baseline conservative until then.
| Gate | electron direct conversion |
| Paired with | plug density ratio |
| Status | to be demonstrated |
| Feeds | converter efficiency -> engineering gain |
| Posture | gate, not assumption |