yes, it is a name that is literally pronounced like “X face”

wouldnt Xfce have to rebrand though? lol

It could be using the HTML email renderer. Best to disable HTML view for emails unless its a know good source.
View > Message Body As > Plain text

In the image of the discharge you can clearly see that the device has no cladding. That means a discharge would be limited to a duration of a few seconds, otherwise the material ablated from the wall would lead to extreme heat losses of the plasma. Did they include a future vessel cladding to the plasma volume calculation in the article?