Rendering of an electric current flowing through an artist’s Tokmak fusion facility. Credit: Elle Starkman / PPPL Commun Fees of Communications
Electric currents are everywhere, from powering homes to controlling them Plasma Probably the fusion reactions of fuels to increase the vast global magnetic fields. Now, the U.S. Scientists from the Department of Energy (DOE) at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (Princeton)PPPL) Has discovered that electric currents form in a way that is not known before. The novel’s findings may give researchers a greater ability to bring about the fusion energy of bringing the sun and stars to Earth.
“It is very important to understand what processes generate electric currents in plasma and what events can interfere with them,” said Ian Ochas, a graduate student. Princeton UniversityProgram of Plasma Physics and lead author of the paper selected as featured article Physics of plasma. “It is the primary tool used to control magnetic fusion research plasma.”
Graduate student Ian Ochas. Credit: Elle Starkman
Fusion is the process by which light elements in the form of plasma are broken down together – free, heated, charged states of matter composed of electrons and atomic nuclei – producing large amounts of energy. Scientists are looking to mimic fusion for a virtual renewable power supply to generate electricity.
Unexpected currents in the plasma occur in the pedun nut-shaped fusion facilities called the toxins. Trends develop when a specific type of electromagnetic wave, such as a radio and microwave oven emits, forms spontaneously. These waves push some of the electrons already moving forward, “riding on the waves like surfers on a surfboard,” Ochs said.
But the frequency of these waves is important. When the frequency is high, the wave leads some electrons forward and others backward. Both motions cancel each other out and no current occurs.
However, when the frequency is low, the waves push forward on the electron and fall back on the atomic nuclei or ions, creating a net electric current after all. Ochs discovered that researchers could surprisingly create these currents when a low-frequency wave was a special type of “ion sound wave” that resembled sound waves in the air.
The significance of this discovery extends from the relatively small scale of the laboratory to the vast scale of the universe. “There are magnetic fields all over the universe on different scales, including the size of galaxies, and we don’t know how they got there,” Chase said. “The mechanism we’ve discovered can help create the universe’s magnetic field, and any new methods that can generate a magnetic field are of interest to the astrophysics community.”
Nathaniel Fisch, physicist at PPPL, director of the program for plasma physics. Credit: Elle Starkman
The results of pencil and paper calculations include mathematical expressions that give scientists the ability to calculate how these currents, which come into direct contact without electrons, evolve and grow. “The construction of these expressions was not straightforward,” Ochs said. “We encircled the findings so that they could be keyly clear and use simple expressions to capture key physics.”
The results deepened the understanding of the basic physical phenomenon and were unpredictable. They seem to contradict the traditional notion that current drives need to collide with electrons, Oches said.
“The question of whether waves in plasma can drive any current is really very deep and goes towards the basic interactions of plasma waves,” said Nathaniel Fisch, professor and associate chairman of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences, co-author of the paper. Director of Program in Plasma Physics. “Ochs, with the rigors of mathematics, originated in a masterful, diodetic fashion, not only to balance these effects, but also to conspire to allow the creation of pure electrical currents at times.”
These findings provide the basis for future research. “What particularly excites me is the mathematical formality with which Ochs has gained physical intuition and insight, which now puts him in a position to challenge or lay a solid foundation,” Fisch said. More bizarre behavior in the interaction of waves with resonant particles in plasma. “
Reference: Ian E. Oxa and Nathaniel J. Fishch, 22 June 2020 “Momentum-exchange current drives by electrostatic waves in uncontrolled collisionless plasma. Physics of plasma.
DOI: 10.1063 / 5.0011516
