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Central claims: Pappas-PT

Project holds one document: US Patent 5,556,418 (Pappas, 1996), 7 pages, OCR text, read via digest plus a full deep read (pp.1-7, with page images for pp.2-7). Text is available, so there is no source gap. The patent has no clinical data; the only evidence in it is oscillograms of the electrical output. (Updated after QE: claims 2, 3 and 5 corrected as flagged by the reviewers and arbiter; claim 6 added.)

  1. An oscillating arc-discharge plasma gives transient voltage and current 10-100 times above the supplied potential and average current, which the inventor attributes to arc resistance moving from infinite to under 0.5 ohm to about -100 ohm ("infinite" then negative gain). The legal claims 1 and 17 contain none of this gain language, only resonance absorption. [read: p.4-5]
  2. The plasma emits short bursts (about 10-15 per train, the first unequal; duty cycle about 0.001%) at its characteristic radio "eigenfrequencies" (tens to hundreds of MHz in the figures), delivered to the body through an induction coil. Burst length is stated three ways: under 1e-6 s (description), 1e-4 to 1e-6 s (claim 14) and under 1e-4 s (claim 16). The oscillogram readout is identical on FIGS. 2 and 3 and has no vertical scale. [read: p.3, 6-7; page images]
  3. Because the bursts are shorter than the time needed for air to break down, their fields can exceed the dielectric strength of air by 1-100 times without ionizing it, which the patent says makes non-invasive cell-scale fields possible. The patent states 10^6 V/m for both the membrane field and air's strength; the real values are about 1.4e7 to 2.3e8 V/m (membrane) and about 3e6 V/m (air). [read: page image p.4; calc]
  4. Cell constituents resonate with the plasma eigenfrequencies and selectively absorb the energy, which initiates selected endothermic chemical reactions (for example a nitrogen plasma selectively exciting nitrogen in tissue). No frequency is given for any element. The idea is related to the cited prior art of Liboff et al. (US 5,160,591, ion cyclotron resonance). [read: p.1, 5-7] 5a. Restoring transmembrane potential (cancer about 15 mV, aged or unhealthy about 50 mV, healthy about 70 mV; no references in the patent) is therapeutic, and cells with a low potential are "the source of pain generation signals". The patent says the effect matches microcontact electrodes (Nordenstrom's invasive method) and works over clothing; penetration depth is "proportional to the intensity of the applied field". The coil is specified at current of at least 1000 A. [read: p.4-7] 5b. The pulses can "pasteurize" degenerate cells or microorganisms by pressure increase. Claims 5/6 contain drafting errors ("diameter ... 6 square millimeters"; claim 6 conflicts with the 30 cm preferred coil). [read: p.4-7]
  5. (Added from the Investigator; not in the 1996 patent; kept in the record) The inventor's later, much stronger claims: "20% excess heat on the probe alone" (New Energy News, June 1998), "C to Fe", "Na + O -> K", the cell as a "(ATP) controlled microscopic Nuclear Reactor", ">1 GW" peak and "888 pulses at about 80 J" (Physiology of the Cell, 2006), and a 2018 Greek utility model on "free energy generation". [web per sites.md and research/files]