Related papers: Foo Fighters and Microwave Oven Plasma Balls
Lightning balls are very rare natural phenomena that appear as free floating glowing globs, usually during electric activity in the atmosphere of the Earth. Each year, hundreds of eyewitness accounts of such strange events are reported to…
We present a comprehensive theory on the formation of ball lightning, a luminous sphere sometimes observed after normal lightning. In a ball lightning event, a relativistic electron bunch can be produced by the stepped leader of lightning…
Main results of researches of the electric erosive discharge afterglow plasma, of the fireballs being formed by this plasma and having some particular but deep similarities to the ball lightning are given. The analysis of our results and…
We propose an efficient mechanism to heat a plasma by an intense microwave field solving the equation of ion motion in a wave field and a constant magnetic field in a large coupling regime. The mechanism does not relies explicitly on…
The sudden release of copious $\g$-ray photons into a compact region creates an opaque photon--lepton fireball due to the prolific production of electron--positron pairs. The photons that we observe in the bursts emerge only at the end of…
When a relativistic laser pulse with high photon density interacts with a specially tailored thin foil target, a strong torque is exerted on the resulting spiral-shaped foil plasma, or light fan. Because of its structure, the latter can…
Fast radio bursts are mysterious millisecond-duration transients prevalent in the radio sky. Rapid accumulation of data in recent years has facilitated an understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms of these events. Knowledge gained…
In steady state, the fuel cycle of a fusion plasma requires inward particle fluxes of fuel ions. These particle flows are also accompanied by heating. In the case of classical transport in a rotating cylindrical plasma, this heating can…
A coaxial microwave plasma setup was designed for investigation by optical and laser diagnostics. The plasma is sustained by two microwave power sources located at both ends of a coaxial line. This allows generating an axially homogeneous…
Gamma ray bursts are among the most energetic events in the known universe. A highly relativistic fireball is ejected. In most cases the burst itself is followed by an afterglow, emitted under deceleration as the fireball plunges through…
We review our understanding of the prototype ``Propeller'' system AE Aqr and we examine its flaring behaviour in detail. The flares are thought to arise from collisions between high density regions in the material expelled from the system…
A radiofrequency glow discharge plasma, which is polluted with a certain number of dusty grains, is studied. In addition to various dusty plasma phenomena, several specific colloidal effects should be considered. We focus on radiometric…
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious radio transients whose physical origin is still unknown. Within a few astronomical units near an FRB source, the electric field of the electromagnetic wave is so large that the electron oscillation…
Recent observations show that fast radio bursts (FRBs) are energetic but probably non-catastrophic events occurring at cosmological distances. The properties of their progenitors are largely unknown in spite of many attempts to determine…
When a fast radio burst (FRB) expands from its source through a surrounding tenuous plasma, it strongly heats and compresses the plasma at radii up to $\sim 10^{14}$cm. The likely central engines of FRBs are magnetars, and their ambient…
Ball lightning is an impressive natural electromagnetic phenomenon occurring in atmosphere under suitable circumstances. Its origin, composition and stability issues are a matter of debate, due to presence of many evidences still…
Context. The origin of the heating of the solar atmosphere is still an unsolved problem. As the photosphere and chromosphere radiate more energy than the solar corona, it is challenging but important to reveal all the mechanisms that…
Microwave plasmas are a promising technology for energy-efficient CO$_{2}$ valorization via conversion of CO$_{2}$ into CO and O$_2$ using renewable energies. A 2.45 GHz microwave plasma torch with swirling CO$_{2}$ gas flow is studied in a…
Fast radio bursts (FRBs), millisecond-duration bursts prevailing in the radio sky, are the latest big puzzle in the universe and have been a subject of intense observational and theoretical investigations in recent years. The rapid…
A theory is proposed to explain with simplicity the basic observed properties of a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB). It employs a well-known result of Schwinger, that static electric fields in excess of a critical value are unstable to pair creation,…