Short answers, pulled from the story.
Potential output describes the highest level of real gross domestic product sustainable over the long term. Economist Paul Samuelson published a textbook introducing this concept to students across America in 1958.
If actual GDP rises and stays above potential output, then inflation tends to increase as demand for factors of production exceeds supply. This dynamic occurs because workers have finite time and capital equipment cannot expand instantly.
The non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment stands for the unemployment rate that ostensibly equals potential GDP levels. Mitchell William published work titled The dreaded NAIRU is still about! in 2009 discussing this economic term.
Betancourt Roger documented capital utilization patterns in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics during 2008. Factories run below full speed when the output gap widens significantly due to these lags in industrial capacity utilization.
Nelson Charles R described trend cycle decomposition techniques in his 2008 entry for The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. These tools allow analysts to see how business cycles interact with underlying potential levels.