Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site prometheus.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!umcp-cs!prometheus!pmk From: pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M Koloc) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: Ball lightning Message-ID: <134@prometheus.UUCP> Date: Fri, 5-Apr-85 02:29:01 EST Article-I.D.: promethe.134 Posted: Fri Apr 5 02:29:01 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 7-Apr-85 03:29:32 EST References: <56@tekig5.UUCP> <9585@brl-tgr.ARPA> <133@prometheus.UUCP> <40@utastro.UUCP> Organization: Prometheus II Ltd., College Park, MD Lines: 66 > It's a good theorem (virial). The explanation you gave for ball lightning > seemed to get around it by considering the external pressure (from the air) > as well as the internal fields. [Incidentally, I never heard this explanation > Can you give a reference?] It's my own theory, but the half physical embodiment of it (Spheromak) has caught on and we only need a few ten k$ to form the real thing in air. The advantages of the PMK are just now being recognized by the fusion fuddys and within a year, the work will begin to be published. The connection of ball lightning with fusion and toroidal geometries started in the 1950's. Names to check are Chandrasekhar, Lust & Schluter, Kapitsa, Bostick, Sweet, and Shafranov. VD Shafranov, "On Magnetohydrodynamical Equilibrium Configurations", J. Exptl. Theoret.Phys., 33, 710, 1957 (translation in Sov Physics--JETP, 5,545 1958 is a quite good one because the stable configuration discussed includes the plasma ring with the poloidal and toroidal currents and fields, non-respectively, with the presence of the external atmosphere supporting the plasma with direct contact. It is also pointed out that plasma currents near the surface would be sufficient to ionize neutrals. But this configuration lacks, 1) energetic electrons and a trapped external poloidal flux. Consequently, its energy density is too low and it has the "wrong" shape to be ball lightning. Trapping the external poloidal flux infers an insulating vacuum poloidal field (because of the hole) and conducting spheroidal shell or Mantle. It turns out that the tokamak has the same magnetic topology, but different physical embodiment. The spheromak is much more closely related to ball lightning, and papers by M Bussac, HP Furth, (Rosenbluth), et al., IAEA CN-37, Innsbruck, 1978, corrected by M Rosenbluth** & M Bussac, "MHD Stability of the Spheromak", Nuc Fus 19, 489, 1979. Check also Koloc & Ogden, US-Japan Joint Symposium on Compact Toruses, (First - 1979) and (Third - 1980) and there is even a patent on the apparatus and method US 4,023,065; 1977 (filed 1973). > people impressed by the ("virial") theorem, they insisted that ball lightning > that plasma can't confine itself with self-generated fields and therefore > is a fluorescence (glowing nebulous gas) phenomenon with little internal > energy. Yes, and it would be as a cloud of smoke in terms of "falling apart" with the slightest breeze. Actually, the model of Shafranov has 2 or three times the background energy density of air (one joule/cc), and the PMK model has 8 to 14 times. PMK's are like "super balls" and can bounce. It's also dangerous because of its energetic currents, (soft Xrays) and relativistic electron current beam induced transmutation of elements in bricks in a chimmey where the ball lightning explosively decayed. Further, the rapid collapse of the stray dipole field would set up killing image currents in the brain of any living thing in proximity. > > Note that the person who told me this was an expert on lightning. He was > giving a colloquium at Fermilab. Lightning is another story as is the tokamak. Theory and data for lightning just don't jive. Maybe later. Special Reverence **Marshal N. Rosenbluth of Lab. Theoretical Fusion Studies, University of Texas, Austin -- |-------------------------------------------------------|--------| | pmk@prometheus: (301) 445-1075 | FUSION | | Prometheus II Ltd., College Park, MD 20740-0222 | this | | ..!{umcp-cs,seismo}!prometh!pmk | decade | |-------------------------------------------------------|--------|