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Double Layer (plasma)
A double layer is a structure in a plasma consisting of two parallel layers of opposite electrical charge. The sheets of charge, which are not necessarily planar, produce localised excursions of electric potential, resulting in a relatively strong electric field between the layers and weaker but more extensive compensating fields outside, which restore the global potential. Ions and electrons within the double layer are accelerated, decelerated, or deflected by the electric field, depending on their direction of motion. Double layers can be created in discharge tubes, where sustained energy is provided within the layer for electron acceleration by an external power source. Double layers are claimed to have been observed in the aurora and are invoked in astrophysical applications. Similarly, a double layer in the auroral region requires some external driver to produce electron acceleration. Electrostatic double layers are especially common in current-carrying plasmas, and are very ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Structure
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as biological organisms, minerals and chemicals. Abstract structures include data structures in computer science and musical form. Types of structure include a hierarchy (a cascade of one-to-many relationships), a network featuring many-to-many links, or a lattice featuring connections between components that are neighbors in space. Load-bearing Buildings, aircraft, skeletons, anthills, beaver dams, bridges and salt domes are all examples of load-bearing structures. The results of construction are divided into buildings and non-building structures, and make up the infrastructure of a human society. Built structures are broadly divided by their varying design approaches and standards, into categories including building structures, arch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Farley–Buneman Instability
The Farley–Buneman instability, or FB instability, is a microscopic plasma instability named after Donald T. Farley and Oscar Buneman. It is similar to the ionospheric Rayleigh-Taylor instability. It occurs in collisional plasma with neutral component, and is driven by drift currents. It can be thought of as a modified two-stream instability arising from the difference in drifts of electrons and ions exceeding the ion acoustic speed. It is present in the equatorial and polar ionospheric E-regions. In particular, it occurs in the equatorial electrojet due to the drift of electrons relative to ions, and also in the trails behind ablating meteoroids. Since the FB fluctuations can scatter electromagnetic waves, the instability can be used to diagnose the state of ionosphere by the use of electromagnetic pulses. Conditions To derive the dispersion relation below, we make the following assumptions. First, quasi-neutrality is assumed. This is appropriate if we restrict ourse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charged Particle Beam
A charged particle beam is a spatially localized group of electrically charged particles that have approximately the same position, kinetic energy (resulting in the same velocity), and direction. The kinetic energies of the particles are much larger than the energies of particles at ambient temperature. The high energy and directionality of charged particle beams make them useful for many applications in particle physics (see Particle beam#Applications and Electron-beam technology). Such beams can be split into two main classes: # ''unbunched beams'' (''coasting beams'' or ''DC beams''), which have no longitudinal substructure in the direction of beam motion. # ''bunched beams'', in which the particles are distributed into pulses (bunches) of particles. Bunched beams are most common in modern facilities, since the most modern particle accelerators require bunched beams for acceleration. Assuming a normal distribution of particle positions and impulses, a charged particle bea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intergalactic Medium
{{disambiguation ...
Intergalactic may refer to: * "Intergalactic" (song), a song by the Beastie Boys * ''Intergalactic'' (TV series), a 2021 UK science fiction TV series * Intergalactic space * Intergalactic travel, travel between galaxies in science fiction and speculation See also * *Interstellar (other) *Interplanetary (other) *Entergalactic (other) Entergalactic may refer to: * ''Entergalactic'' (album), a 2022 album by Kid Cudi * ''Entergalactic'' (TV special), a TV special on Netflix ** ''Entergalactic (Original Score)'', a film score composed by Dot da Genius and Plain Pat * "Enter Gala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interplanetary Medium
The interplanetary medium (IPM) or interplanetary space consists of the mass and energy which fills the Solar System, and through which all the larger Solar System bodies, such as planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets, move. The IPM stops at the heliopause, outside of which the interstellar medium begins. Before 1950, interplanetary space was widely considered to either be an empty vacuum, or consisting of " aether". Composition and physical characteristics The interplanetary medium includes interplanetary dust, cosmic rays, and hot plasma from the solar wind. The temperature of the interplanetary medium varies. For dust particles within the asteroid belt, typical temperatures range from 200 K (−73 °C) at 2.2 AU down to 165 K (−108 °C) at 3.2 AU. The density of the interplanetary medium is very low, decreasing in inverse proportion to the square of the distance from the Sun. It is variable, and may be affected by magnetic fields and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Current Sheet
A current sheet is an electric current that is confined to a surface, rather than being spread through a volume of space. Current sheets feature in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the study of the behavior of electrically conductive fluids: if there is an electric current through part of the volume of such a fluid, magnetic forces tend to expel it from the fluid, compressing the current into thin layers that pass through the volume. The largest occurring current sheet in the Solar System is the so-called Heliospheric current sheet, which is about 10,000 km thick, and extends from the Sun and out beyond the orbit of Pluto. In astrophysical plasmas such as the solar corona, current sheets theoretically might have an aspect ratio (breadth divided by thickness) as high as 100,000:1. By contrast, the pages of most books have an aspect ratio close to 2000:1. Because current sheets are so thin in comparison to their size, they are often treated as if they have zero thickness; thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of energy. This difference in mass arises due to the difference in nuclear binding energy between the atomic nuclei before and after the reaction. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers active or main-sequence stars and other high-magnitude stars, where large amounts of energy are released. A nuclear fusion process that produces atomic nuclei lighter than iron-56 or nickel-62 will generally release energy. These elements have a relatively small mass and a relatively large binding energy per nucleon. Fusion of nuclei lighter than these releases energy (an exothermic process), while the fusion of heavier nuclei results in energy retained by the product nucleons, and the resulting reaction is endo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the solar wind plasma also includes a mixture of materials found in the solar plasma: trace amounts of heavy ions and atomic nuclei such as C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, and Fe. There are also rarer traces of some other nuclei and isotopes such as P, Ti, Cr, 54Fe and 56Fe, and 58Ni, 60Ni, and 62Ni. Superposed with the solar-wind plasma is the interplanetary magnetic field. The solar wind varies in density, temperature and speed over time and over solar latitude and longitude. Its particles can escape the Sun's gravity because of their high energy resulting from the high temperature of the corona, which in turn is a result of the coronal magnetic field. The boundary separating the corona from the solar wind is called the Alfvén surface. At a distance of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ionosphere
The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important role in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It has practical importance because, among other functions, it influences radio propagation to distant places on Earth. History of discovery As early as 1839, the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss postulated that an electrically conducting region of the atmosphere could account for observed variations of Earth's magnetic field. Sixty years later, Guglielmo Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic radio signal on December 12, 1901, in St. John's, Newfoundland (now in Canada) using a kite-supported antenna for reception. The transmitting station in Poldhu, Cornwall, used a spark-gap transmitter to produce a signal with a freq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathode
A cathode is the electrode from which a conventional current leaves a polarized electrical device. This definition can be recalled by using the mnemonic ''CCD'' for ''Cathode Current Departs''. A conventional current describes the direction in which positive charges move. Electrons have a negative electrical charge, so the movement of electrons is opposite to that of the conventional current flow. Consequently, the mnemonic ''cathode current departs'' also means that electrons flow ''into'' the device's cathode from the external circuit. For example, the end of a household battery marked with a + (plus) is the cathode. The electrode through which conventional current flows the other way, into the device, is termed an anode. Charge flow Conventional current flows from cathode to anode outside of the cell or device (with electrons moving in the opposite direction), regardless of the cell or device type and operating mode. Cathode polarity with respect to the anode can be positive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
