PersianPaladin wrote:You didn't read Lerner's paper or his quantitative analysis.
Yes I did. The whole thing is predicated on an Alfven circuit, in at the equator and out at the poles of the quasar. But the electromotive force is not identified. That's what's going to do the work, and we have no idea where the energy comes from. Then, to get energy conversions in DPF form, he needs the radially inflowing charge stream to stay organized by the magnetic pinch effect. No worries there, if the mystery e.m.f. can generate sufficient charge velocities. But most crucially, he needs for those currents to form a corner kink in the center, to set up the instability for the episodic DPF snap-backs. In a contrived laboratory apparatus, you can force this kind of regime, but without
applied forces, those radially converging magnetic fields at the center all repel each other, and you don't get a kink. Rather, the Alfven circuit would tend toward a perfectly toroidal form, because the magnetic pressure on the inside smooths out the kinks. (There is a reason why toroidal plasmoids like being toroidal plasmoids. Follow the forces, and you'll find the forms.) Hence the conditions necessary to get DPF in a quasar were not established, and the "quantitative analysis" was just a matter of plugging quasar energy density statistics into his laboratory model. He could have just as easily said that quasars are like candles, releasing the chemical energy stored in hydrocarbons. With laboratory measurements of the extreme energy density in a candle flame compared to its surroundings, he could have done a "quantitative analysis" of how many hydrocarbons are getting burned up in a quasar, and at least somebody would have been impressed. But the issue of similitude is non-trivial. To reliably map numbers from one system to the other, you have to know that the systems behave the same way,
and for all of the same reasons. Otherwise, it might just be apples-n-oranges. And that's precisely what I'm calling it.
PersianPaladin wrote:The intense magnetic fields and high-energy bi-polar gamma-ray ejections from galaxies suggest the periodic build-up, confinement and break-down of EM energy in quite a small location.
Yes! But where did it "suggest" that you lock down on DPF, argue in its defense
ad infinitum, not consider the problems with it, and not consider alternatives? My "natural tokamak" model for quasars uses an accretion disc (which we know to be there), has extremely powerful magnetic fields (which we know to be there), is capable of steady and fluctuating output (ditto), and produces bipolar jets (ditto). So I'll consider what you're saying, if you can answer the crucial questions. But will you consider what I'm saying?
PersianPaladin wrote:When Birkeland Currents with a wide Debye length in intergalactic regions (with low current-density but with total currents of potential mega-amperes of current) intersect in certain regions...
Ummm... "mega-amperes" isn't going to get it. Try scaling "180 kA across a gap of 10 mm" in lab DPF up to the size of a quasar. And then tell me that evidence of such a current might not be detectable.
PersianPaladin wrote:...the EM forces cause the currents to twist around each other (provided of course they are both traveling in the same direction)...
Twisted pairs of currents are opposite charges traveling in the same direction, attracted to each other by the electric force, but buffered from each other by the magnetic pressure. Like charges traveling in the same direction get pinched into the same charge stream. So what's the significance of that? It isn't a magical form of pent-up energy.
PersianPaladin wrote:...and if they enter a region with closer proximate currents then there is no reason why the plasma won't experience pinch compression...
You're thinking that electric currents can be routed past each other, like one extension cord laid on top of another, and where they cross, the current density is higher, and thus the pinch would be greater. The second part would be true, but the first part is false, so this doesn't happen. If you wouldn't mind, you could work through the following exercise:
- Take out a piece of paper.
- Somewhere near the top, draw a symbol for a positive charge.
- Somewhere near the bottom, draw a symbol for a negative charge.
- Draw in the lines of electric force going from the positive to the negative charge. Electric currents will follow these lines.
- Somewhere near the left, draw a symbol for a positive charge.
- Somewhere near the right, draw a symbol for a negative charge.
- Draw the lines of force connecting those charges. Electric currents will follow these lines.
- Now realize that if you have intersecting lines of electric force, you've made a mistake, because this doesn't happen in nature, and no, you don't get intersecting currents. Rather, the positive charge at the top combines with the positive charge at the left to form one electrode, while the negative charges at the right & bottom form the other. The combined lines of force will be diagonal (& splayed) from the upper left to the lower right, without intersections. Nowhere in there do you get intersecting currents.
And don't bother flooding me with known instances of intersecting filaments, and with stars forming at the intersections. I know about that, and my model handles it
without violating basic principles of EM. To make the Birkeland Extension Cord model work, you need to establish the forces that will overpower the repulsion of electric lines of force.
Charles Chandler wrote:Where are the x-rays and gamma rays from the collisions of the necessary near-light-speed electrons in the Juergens model? We'd know all about these by now, if they existed. Especially since near-light-speed electrons would be pinched into an extremely well-defined channel.
Thornhill wrote:The objection is simplistic. It stems from a lack of understanding of real plasma behavior. The notion of relativistic electrons streaming toward the Sun is not the electric discharge model that Juergens proposed. In Juergens' model, interplanetary space plays the role of the positive column which is quasi-neutral plasma with a very small electric field sufficient only to cause a net drift of electrons toward the Sun against the flow of the solar (wind) plasma. The electric field near the Sun required to produce the solar wind acceleration has been calculated to be less than 1 microvolt/km, unmeasurable by any instrument in space. The electric field in interplanetary space will be less than this. Relativistic electrons will be found only in relatively thin plasma double layers near the two discharge electrodes, in this case the Sun (anode) and the heliosphere (virtual cathode).
1 microvolt/km??? That kind of near-infinitesimal potential is going to pull 10
15 amps against a 450 km/s solar wind? I don't think so. I think that in collisions, electrons will pick up the direction & speed of the +ions. And since 1 μV/km is way-way-way below the ionization potentials of the elements present, electron uptake will occur, and that will be the end of the story. I think that the "1 μV/km" quote is just conveniently below the instrumental range, which answers for why we're not detecting it, but then the microphysics won't work.
Furthermore, to maintain this position, Bob's questions (concerning the evidence that the electron drift is away from the Sun, not toward it) have to be answered.
As concerns "the notion of relativistic electrons streaming toward the Sun is not the electric discharge model that Juergens proposed", I must have misunderstood this quote, attributed to you in
Thoth, Vol. III, No. 6, March 31, 1999.
Thornhill wrote:So, what might we expect to find in space near the Earth if we occupy the negative glow region? James Cobine writes in his textbook "Gaseous Conductors" in section 8.5 Cathode Phenomena and Negative Glow: " an appreciable fraction if not nearly all of the electrons entering the negative glow from the Crookes dark space have a range [of energies] corresponding to the entire cathode drop." In other words, if we accept the estimate from Juergens, electrons will be accelerated toward the Sun with a range of energies up to almost the full potential difference between the Sun and the surrounding plasma, 10 billion volts. As Dr Earl Milton pointed out in his editorial of Juergens' KRONOS article, such relativistic electrons cause "effects not seen in more mundane discharges".
You're welcome to take a different position, but each position raises questions that need to be answered.