New "universal" constant for plasmas?

Discuss how polywell fusion works; share theoretical questions and answers.

Moderators: tonybarry, MSimon

Post Reply
DeltaV
Posts: 2245
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:05 am

New "universal" constant for plasmas?

Post by DeltaV »

Space plasmas share a secret
The controversial idea comes from George Livadiotis and David McComas, two physicists at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas. They had been exploring basic parameters of different plasmas across the Universe, such as their temperature, density and the strength of their magnetic fields. From that information, the researchers calculated a new parameter, called h*, that characterizes each plasma.

“We went into this thinking we’d find one value in one plasma, and another value in another plasma,” says McComas. “We were shocked and slightly horrified to find the same value across all of them. This is really a major deal.”
Evidence of Large-Scale Quantization in Space Plasmas (free PDF)

asdfuogh
Posts: 77
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:58 am
Location: California

Re: New "universal" constant for plasmas?

Post by asdfuogh »

I remember reading through this. It looks interesting! I heard that their plan is to look at lab plasmas to see if it has such a quantity as well, but since their focus is on space plasmas, I'm not certain that they will.

Post Reply