This post is a reply to the challenge by Sol, under which the terms areed were:
Using plasma scaleability relationships between large and small size plasmas is the scope of the chosen subject, and comparing some of the similarities that have been reproduced in experiments with EM effects inside plasmas, and structures in the cosmos, thus indicating a level of EM activity and charge separation not accepted by conventional views.
Heres a couple of plasma/electricity based experiments relevant to this subject. They add a whole new dimension to how we can gain an understanding of the cosmos from various experiments involving plasma scaling and EM forces inside plasmas here on Earth.
I have to start with the work of Kristian Birkeland. He conducted an array of experiments in an attempt to understand phenomenon on the Earth and in space, most notable are his Terrella experiments, involving a highly electrically charged anode in a vacuum box. All this was done over a century ago now, but his results are still a fascinating subject even today. This was basically the starting point for the field of cosmical electrodynamics.
The results of the Norwegian Polar Expedition contained the first determination of the global pattern of electric currents in the polar region from ground magnetic field measurements. The discovery of X-rays inspired Birkeland to develop vacuum chambers to study the influence of magnets on cathode rays. An example of one of his experiments is depicted on the left front of the bank note. It shows a magnetized terrella, simulating the Earth, suspended in an evacuated box. Birkeland noticed that an electron beam directed toward the terrella was guided toward the magnetic poles and produced rings of light around the poles and concluded that the aurora could be produced in a similar way. He developed a theory in which energetic electrons were ejected from sunspots on the solar surface, directed to the Earth, and guided to the Earth's polar regions by the geomagnetic field where they produced the visible aurora. Birkeland was nominated for the Nobel Prize no less than seven times.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?isnumber=4316609&arnumber=4316617&count=41&index=7
Professor Kr. Birkeland: His Life and Work
This paper appears in: Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on
Abstract:
Professor Kr. Birkeland's electromagnetic gun is first discussed. Then, Birkeland's works on comets, zodiacal light, sun-weather relations, and the periodicity of polar storms are summarized. He based most of his ideas on models from the results of laboratory experiments. During the period 1894-1913, Birkeland contributed greatly to the study of solar-terrestrial physics. He introduced many ideas which still remain central to these fields. Although much of this work remained unrecognized for many years, it was truly the foundation of modern space physics.
Some of his striking results with the Terrella can be seen
here.
He managed to replicate may aspects of the planets and the sun to a very high degree of accuracy. All this was done using a highly electrically charged (not neutral) metal sphere. He was able to vary the pressure in the box, and he also was able to add various gasses or variable pressure, hydrogen, helium, etc. Unfortunately, nowadays terrella experiments have been replaced by computer simulations, which don’t tend to show many of the electrical anomalies observed with the actual experiments.
Heres some of his material;
The series of experiments that I have made with a magnetic globe as cathode in a large vacuum-box, for the purpose of studying analogies to the zodiacal light and Saturn's ring, have led to discoveries that appear to be of great importance for the solar theory.
We have already several times had occasion to give various particulars regarding the manner in which these experiments were carried out. It is by powerful magnetisation of the magnetisable globe that the phenomenon answering to Saturn's rings is produced. During this process, polar radiation and disruptive discharges at the equator such as that shown in fig. 247a (which happens to be a unipolar discharge) may also occur, if the current intensity of discharge is great. If the magnetisation of the globe be reduced (or the tension of the discharge increased) gradually, the luminous ring round the globe will he reduced to a minimum size, after which another equatorial ring is developed and expands rapidly (fig. 247b). It has been possible for the ring to develops in such a manner that it could easily he demonstrated by radiation on the most distant wall of my large vacuum-tube (see fig. 217).
[Note - All hotlinked pictures herein are from "The Norwegian aurora polaris expedition", which is public source document with no copyright -
http://www.archive.org/details/norwegianaurorap01chririch, and I have uploaded them independantly (just to keep the copyright censors here happy so they dont all get taken down
)]
We will now pass on to experiments that in my opinion have brought about the most important discoveries in the long chain of experimental analogies to terrestrial and cosmic phenomena that I have produced. In the experiments represented in figs. 248 a-e, there are some small white patches on the globe, which are due to a kind of discharge that, under ordinary circumstances, is disruptive, and which radiates from points on the cathode. If the globe has a smooth surface and is not magnetised, the disruptive discharges come rapidly one after another, and are distributed more or less uniformly all over the globe (see a). On the other hand, if the globe is magnetised, even very slightly, the patches from which the disruptive discharges issue, arrange themselves then in two zones parallel with the magnetic equator of the globe; and the more powerfully the globe is magnetised, the nearer do they come to the equator (see b, c, d). With a constant magnetisation, the zones of patches will be found near the equator if the discharge-tension is low, but far from the equator if the tension is high. Fig. 248e shows the phenomenon seen from below.
Note the sunspots, plasatorus and other features that replicate very precisely different aspects the sun.
Let us return to our experiments. If the globe is slightly magnetised, the patches of eruption are seen to arrange themselves in zones, with long pencils issuing into space, almost as in fig. 249; only these pencils are bent by the magnetism, which is exactly analogous to what we have assumed regarding the cathode-rays issuing from the sun.
These centres of eruption for the disruptive discharges become more marked by the addition of some Leyden jars parallel to the discharge-tube; but care must be taken not to add too much capacity, as the discharge may then become oscillatory. I have generally employed about 10 to 20 milliamperes as the discharge-current for the globe of 8 centimetres diameter.
These EM rays eminating from his terrella are highly consistant with the recently discovered X-ray jets found eminating from the sun by Japans Hinode spacecraft.
The Sun is Bristling with X-ray Jets - NASA, 2007.
It bears a resemblance to the picture supplied in the NASA article:
external image
I have sought by various methods to find a value for the very singular capacity of this globe corresponding to disruptive discharges, a capacity which seems to vary perceptibly according to the conditions of the discharge. In the case of this globe (8 cm. in diameter), this capacity varies about 1/100 of a microfarad, and if I assume that the sun has a corresponding capacity C in the relation of the square of the diameters, I find that C = 3 x 1018 microfarads. […..]
In my opinion some of the most striking resemblances between Birkelands work and the sun was the production of various sun spot like objects on his terella, as well as very accurate creation of the suns polar coronal hole, and the equatorial plasma torus, all of which are clearly visible in the following picture;
As soon as these shells were put on outside the silvered globe, I obtained point-discharges in great numbers; but they were not so intense as I had expected, not even when a large condenser was placed in parallel with the vacuum-tube. It was only after having exhausted my discharge-box for a long time and filled it with hydrogen, and again and again exhausted it, that these point-discharges began to be powerful.
compare to SOHO's picture of the equatorial plasma torus:
external image
And also compare the sphere on the left to the various new pictures revealing the coronal polar hole, which is basically when the corona above the poles greatly diminishes, an effect not currently explainable by standard models. One of the best comparisons in my opinion;
external image
Figs. 260 a, b, and c (pictured above) show three photographs of discharges under varied conditions.
The first is of an experiment with a considerable gas-pressure and very slight magnetisation of the globe. It shows an interesting radiation from the polar regions, but the point-discharges, which, it is true, are most numerous in the equatorial regions, have not separated into two zones as they usually did when the surface of the cathode was smooth.
The third photograph is of an experiment in hydrogen gas with a very high vacuum.
And he also simulated with his terrella what may be described as the suns external electric field, or the corona. It shows up as a very definite equipotential circle around the sun, and has very strong resemblances to SOHO’s recent picture of a very similar circular field surrounding the sun.
compare to soho's picture:
external image
He was able to replicate other features of planets as well as the sun. One of the most impressive was his emulation of planetary rings.
And he successfully seemed to create polar currents. It was this that made him think that the Earth may have incoming currents at its poles, and to this day he is considered the person who predicted and discovered the source of the auroras, thus why the currents that enter planets poles are usually called Birkeland currents (or sometimes flux ropes).
The thing that makes Birkelands experiments most fascinating in my view is that they are still regarded by most conventional astronomers to be mere co-incidence. Statistically it is astronomically improbable that these effects were just a co-incidence, or that the EM effects he demonstrated are unrelated to the sun and planets in some way. He nearly exactly mirrored many characteristics of the sun and other planets. The implications of his work are still to this day largely ignored by the scientific community, despite the vast amount of contributions Birkeland made to other areas of space science. It seems that even being nominated for a nobel prize seven times was not enough for the scientific community to pay attention to this controversial area of his work. They just couldn't swallow the idea of a sun or planets eminating an external E-field, despite the huge amount of evidence Birkeland presented for this with his experiments which we produced by the E-field and B-field interactions on, and outside, the charged Anode.
Further work on plasma scaling from experimental level to cosmos has been performed by
Winston H. Bostick. He was a physicist and former head of the physics department at the Stevens Institute of Technology. His research interests included the plasma focus, plasma vortex phenomena, plasmoids and the simulation of cosmical astrophysics by plasma physics experiments in the laboratory.
Some of his earlier publications can be seen in full online, and show some of the initial discoveries and experiments which influenced his later work on this subject;
Experimental Study of Plasmoids – Electromagnetic Phenomena in Cosmical Physics. Provided by NASA Astrophysics data system.
Possible Hydromagnetic Simulation of Cosmical Phenomena in the Laboratory. – Reviews of modern physics. Provided by NASA Astrophysics data system.
What laboratory-produced plasma structures can contribute to the understanding of cosmic structures both large and small (abstract only)
A review of the literature on experimentally-produced plasma structures is presented to explain various cosmic phenomenon in the universe, leading to a hypothesis for the grand unification of the strong force of the nucleus, the electromagnetic force, the electroweak force, and the gravitational force in a solution based on electromagnetism. Diamagnetic vortex filaments and paramagnetic plasma vortex structures have been experimentally produced, and hybrid combinations of these force-free minimum-energy structures, the Birkeland aurora filaments, are expected to play a role in the formation of phenomena including galaxies, solar flares, comet tails and giant galactic jets. A model of the fermion, the photon, and other onta, in which all mass and momentum consist of E and H vectors, and the quantum mechanical wave functions are transverse waves on the filament, are discussed.
One other separate contribution Bostik made to plasma cosmology was an explanation for the hubble expansion based on the magnetic effects associated with a homopolar motor mechanism for galaxies, first proposed by Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfven, which was received well by his peers and published in the journal of Laser and Particle Beams.
The Hubble expansion as ascribed to mutual magnetic induction between neighboring galaxies - Laser and Particle Beams (ISSN 0263-0346), vol. 6. (abstract only)
But the main thrust of his work was on the experimental plasma side, and he made many contributions. Here is a bit of his work in which he conducts some experiments with an electromagnetic plasma gun (similar to the one that
Birkeland originally experimented with decades previously) and examines the results of the interacting EM forces of the plasmoids. Also, he is the person who coined the term plasmoid back in 1959, which is still the word used today. If you check the wiki entry on
plasmoids, most of the work listed there is his material.
He makes some initial observations from this laboratory experiment;
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/n.....104..292B&db_key=PHY&data_type=HTML&format=
A plasma gun has been developed which projects ionized matter (metallic and deuterium ions) at speeds up to 2×107 cm per second. There is some evidence to support the hypothesis that the plasma projected by this gun comes off in an expanding torus which is shaped by its own magnetic field. When the plasma gun is fired into a dc magnetic field, the plasma forms a compact geometrical configuration (a plasma-magnetic entity called a plasmoid) which proceeds across the magnetic field. Plasmoids appear to be plasma cylinders elongated in the direction of the magnetic field. Plasmoids possess a measurable magnetic moment, a measurable translational speed, a transverse electric field, and a measurable size. Plasmoids can interact with each other, seemingly by reflecting off one another. Their orbits can also be made to curve toward one another. Plasmoids can be made to spiral to a stop if projected into a gas at about 10-3mm Hg pressure. Plasmoids can also be made to smash each other into fragments. There is some scant evidence to support the hypothesis that they undergo fission and possess spin.
And he expands on this work in a later publication;
Fig. 1(b), which shows the spatial plasma distribution from two plasma guns fired simultaneously from the pole pieces of a horseshoe magnet, is the laboratory produced paradigm of the bariumcanister type of effect. The diamagnetic plasma vortices that have been studied in the laboratory are in some sense a macroscopic paradigm of the "quantum" phenomenon of Type I superconductivity
(see [27, last entry]).
The plasmas in experiments [8] with two plasma guns fired at one another across a magnetic field take on a different morphological pattern and behaviour when fired into a "vacuum" chamber containing a background gas (air) at about 10-3 ton. The background gas is ionized by the ultraviolet from the plasma guns and is coupled to the moving plasma from the guns by the background magnetic field ( — 3000 G).
Now the plasma from each gun (see Fig. 2(a) and (b)) forms a helical jet, and as these jets approach one another they attach and form a barred-spiral configuration which rotates because of the original angular momentum built into the system by the pointing of the jets. These barredspiral configurations have helical (long-pitch) arms and forked tails as do many of the observed barred-spiral galaxies. The fact that in our laboratory experiments since 1955-1956 we have easily produced these remarkable plasmoids provides the justification of our hypothesis [8] concerning the origin and structure of the barred-spiral galaxies. That is, not only the morphology but the controlling dynamic elements, electric and magnetic fields, are the same in the laboratory as in the galactic phenomena.
>The first picture is a sequential study of two plasmoids fired from sources 10 cm apart across a magnetic field of 4800 G. The Kerr-cell exposure times
are 2x10
-6 and the various delay times of the sequence are indicated in microseconds. The pressure in the chamber is 4x10
-6s.
>The second picture is examples of barred-spiral configurations produced similar to the first, but with no stereo arrangement.
His work on simulating galaxy structures in the laboratory did receive attention from some media outlets, he even made the front page of the New York Time with the heading: “Physicist 'Creates' Universe in a Test Tube; Atom Gun Produces Galaxies and Gives Clues to Creation”. Despite this, the implications of his work are largely ignored by today’s scientists, not for lack of acceptance, but primarily due to the fact that very few scientists are even aware of this type of plasma scaling material, and having no previous material to study on this subject, it was widely ignored.
So that’s a couple of the experiments and scientific publications on plasma scaling and the striking similarities between the forces, dimensions, shape and rotation of laboratory plasma experiments and objects in the cosmos. Scalability of plasma is a well known effect to plasma physicists, where various force free configurations of plasma show the exact same structure, and obey the exact same laws, over many magnitudes of order size difference. Wiki has some good info;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_scaling
In the laboratory, filamentary structure is a common morphology exhibited by energetic plasmas. X-ray pinhole photographs, optical streak and framing camera photographs, and laser holograms often show a filamentary magnetic "rope-like" structure from plasmas produced in multiterawatt pulse power generators or in dense plasma focus machines. High-resolution etchings of electron beams onto witness plates show nearly identical vortex profiles ranging from a dimension of a few micrometers in the dense plasma focus, to a few centimeters in cathode
electron beams
(1),
(2),
(3),
(4). This size variation of four orders of magnitude is extended to over nine orders of magnitude when auroral vortex recordings are directly compared to the laboratory data
( Radio Science, Vol. 8, p.475 ). And with regard to actual current magnitudes, fine-detail resolution of current filaments shows indistinguishable vortex patterns over nearly 12 orders of magnitude, while coarser resolution shows that the phenomena probably transcend at least 14 orders of magnitude, from microampere to multi-megaampere electron beams.
The physics model for plasma galaxy formation has been addressed by various scientists since. Most notable is the work of Anthony Peratt, who was himself a student of Alfven, and he has proposed a model based on various cosmic electrodynamic principles. The following paper gives a good overview of some of the plasma concepts involved, and the
whole document can be read, along with many other publications in established science journals on this matter, from the list of publications on
this website, recently created by various scientists at LANL (Operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Agency Washington, D.C.) Most of the texts are available to view in full, and they all make interesting reading for anyone interested in plasma astrophysics/cosmology and its new found importance to space physics. I have linked to this material before, but no doubt, no-one even bothered to read it.
Evolution of the Plasma Universe: I. Double Radio Galaxies, Quasars, and Extragalactic Jets, A. L. Peratt, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. Vol. PS-14, N.6, pp.639-660, December 1986.(1.7M)
This paper investigates the filamentary electric-current aspect of cosmic plasma. Section II describes the basic model: interactions among galactic-dimensioned fieldaligned current filaments. Section III describes the analysis of the model with three-dimensional electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations. The Biot-Savart force law for filaments is discussed in Section IV, while synchrotron radiation from pinched filaments is given in Section V. Sections VI and VII cover double radio sources, quasars, and magnetically confined sheet electron beams (jets). The author's conclusions are given in Section VIII. The evolution of cosmic plasma beyond the time frame investigated in this manuscript is presented in a sequel paper (denoted
Paper II).
Also in this paper Peratt lists some of the many alternative explanations for various EM radiation in space, explanations that require no initial 'Big Bang'.
The necessity of employing plasma physics to account for the observed electromagnetic radiation from cosmic sources has been pursued by a number of authors. In particular, Sturrock
(ref) and Sturrock and Barnes
(ref) proposed a magnetized plasma radiogalaxy model in which the tearing modes in current-conducting sheets play an important role in the radiation and morphologies observed. Alfven postulates the existence of two neighbouring double layers of radio lobe dimensions in a heliospheric pinched-current model involving the central elliptical galaxy
(ref). The importance of pinched plasma currents, beam instabilities, and filamentation to radiogalaxy processes has been pursued further by Peratt and Green
(ref), Browne
(ref), and also by Lerner
(ref), who points out the close similarities between measured radiation spectra from cosmic sources and that of the dense plasma focus and other pulsed power laboratory devices. Bostick's theory of radio sources is based on his dense plasma focus investigations
(ref).
One of the main principles involved throughout is an electromotive force V = iv x B • ds giving rise to electrical currents in conducting media (ie, space plasma). This is produced wherever relative perpendicular motion of plasma and magnetic- field lines exist
(Ref1: Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on Volume 18, Issue 1, Feb 1990 ,
(Ref2: American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, 1984, p.29 . Also of importance is the Biot savart force, which is related to the inverse square law solution to
Ampère's force Law.
An example of this is the (nightside) sunward-directed magnetospheric plasma that cuts the earth's dipole field lines in the equatorial plane, thereby producing a potential supply that drives currents within the auroral circuit. The tendency for charged particles to follow magnetic lines of force and therefore produce field-aligned currents has now resulted in the widespread use of the term Birkeland currents in space plasma physics
(Ref1: American Geophysical Union, 1984, p. 22-28.) ,
(ref2: “Rotationally-induced Birkeland current systems” - American Geophysical Union, 1984, p. 340-349. .
At a very basic level, this small section from his paper gives an overview of the model.
D. Interacting Birkeland Currents Model
It is the purpose of this paper to extend the study of cosmic plasma to the case of galactic-dimensioned (50 kpc in width) Birkeland filaments by means of three-dimensional, fully electromagnetic, and relativistic particle-incell simulations. Fig. 1 is a contrast-enhanced photograph of the Orion nebula but serves the purpose of representing the morphology to be expected by an observer situated within a much larger filamentary metagalactic structure. The simulation model consists of modeling a magneticfield- aligned neutral plasma filament (column) in the presence of a field-aligned electric field. (Strictly speaking, because of the parallel electric field, the portion of the filament simulated is a double layer
[35].) To study the evolution of interacting filaments, a second filament (nearly identical to the first) is placed adjacent as depicted in Fig. 3. (As many as six filaments have been investigated by simulation while up to 12 filaments have been studied experimentally. However, because of the r
-1 force between filaments, it would appear that a majority of cosmic plasma phenomena are the result of two, or at most three, interactions among the closest filaments.)
And sol, you said I had to list the predictions of plasma cosmology. I’m sure that there’s a few of Birkelands, etc, listed above, but I don’t have all day, so here is a paper written by some independent scientists who evaluate some of the predictions made by one of the founders of plasma cosmology, Hannes Alfven. They seem to come to the same conclusion that I stated for both Birkeland and Bostik above, even though their contributions to science are very far reaching and well known for other areas, much of their material that was not consistant with current scientific opinion does not seem to get any sort of recognition in the slightest. Any scientific reasons as to why this is the case are hardly ever put forward.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?tp=&arnumber=199495&isnumber=5186
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 20, NO. 6, DECEMBER 1992
Alfvkn’s Programme in Solar System Physics
Stephen G. Brush
Abstract- According to some scientists and philosophers of science, a theory is or should be judged by its ability to make successful predictions. This paper examines a case from the history of recent science-the research of Hannes Alfven and his colleagues on solar system physics-in order to see whether scientists actually follow this policy. Tests of seven predictions are considered: magnetic braking, magnetohydrodynamic waves, field-aligned (“Birkeland”) currents, critical ionization velocity and the rings of Uranus, jet streams, electrostatic double layers, and partial corotation (“2/3 effect”). It is found that the success or failure of these predictions had essentially no effect on the acceptance of Alfvkn’s theories, even though concepts such as “AlfvCn waves” have become firmly entrenched in space physics. Perhaps the importance of predictions in such has been exaggerated: if a theory is not acceptable to the scientific community, it may not gain any credit from successful predictions.
!