Question: Suppose there is some sort of weird anisotropic temperature gradient around the outside of the NIF capsule, is it even possible for a torque to be created? The NIF capsule will deform, in an asymmetric way presumably, so at first it seems the answer should be yes, however, the force causing the deformation is always normal to the surface, therefore, any deformation will tend to symmetrize itself, so the torque being imparted may indeed be negligible. Lets consider a 2D model, with a $\theta$ dependent temperature field deforming the capsule. Let's compute the resulting torque as a function of time. Here was attempt 1: This attempt fails because I started describing the ring parametrically, but I should have left the parameter some arbitrary $t$, and not used the angle $theta$ as the parameter. I am working on updating this attempted calculation.
Here's the faulty one:
