Comment by antonvs

We have an extremely good understanding of how gravity operates, both inside and outside of stars. There are no Nobel prizes waiting for things you describe, because that’s all well-established and settled science.

Quantum physics tells us exactly why high temperatures and pressures are needed, and predicts numerically what values are needed. We have a great deal of confidence in its correctness, especially because classical physics predicted values that were far too high - it’s only with quantum tunneling that we get values that match observations.

> The way we are trying to study fusion is like rubbing larger and larger rocks to produce more fire.

This is an incorrect opinion borne of ignorance of the very well-understood physics involved.