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>And stars solve the confinement problem with gravity and by being really, really large.

Kinda. The main catalyst of stellar fusion is quantum tunneling. Temperature and gravity together are not enough to overcome the Coulomb barrier.






Quantum tunneling does not work differently in the core of the Sun than it does on the surface of the Earth.

So what is the difference between those two places? Temperature and pressure. In the Sun those arise from gravity. On the Earth, we need to create them mechanically.




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