Magnetic Reconnection: Plasma Physics 101

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justcurious
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Re: Magnetic Reconnection: Plasma Physics 101

Unread post by justcurious » Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:48 pm

seasmith wrote:
There's no such thing as "magnetic re-connection".
That's the current EU community dogma, but little has been done to Improve the Terminology. Too much fun to rail against the "establishment". ;)
It's not a dogma... and the terminology of magnetic reconnection is only used (to my knowledge) by theoretical astrophysicists who are neither proper phyicists/scientists and know little about electromagnetism.
I believe that these theory guys are a minority in the space sciences who believe in and use these terms.
There seems to be a disconnect between the theoreticians and the engineers and experimental scientists.
I don't believe the theoreticians speak for all members of the establishments, but speak on "behalf of" the establishment when it comes to popular science as black holes and dark energy make for nice headlines and keep the public bewildered and amused.
seasmith wrote:
One Birkeland current crosses paths with another Birkeland current and the circuitry gets re-arranged (new path
Yes, now how would thee describe the interaction of two (or more) magnetic domains/magnetic flux-fields,
from two (or more) spherical permanent magnets (of different strengths),
converging in space ?
:?:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... lefie.html
The magnetic field lines don't interact.
In Electrical Engineering school we learned that fields from multiple charges add to each-other (vector addition).
What you see in space are charges flowing along magnetic field lines, but they don't always have to do so.
With the Earth, the reason they are flowing along field lines is there is an attraction to/from the Earth, either to close a circuit or to find some sort of charge equilibrium. However, a charge moving perpendicular to a magnetic field will have a force exerted on it which will deviate its trajectory. When moving parallel to the field line there is no force exerted on it (see Maxwell's equations, cross product in math, and right hand rule). That is why particles entering the Earth's domain face on get scattered, and some have enough momentum to penetrate a bit deeper and end up spinning around and colliding with other matter and ionizing it etc (Van Allen belts). However particles coming in at higher latitudes may find their way to the Earth by following the magnetic field lines (which only connect to the Earth through the higher latitudes).
So the following of the field lines as Birkeland currents is nature's way of taking the path of least resistance, in fact it's the only way that the charged particles can enter/exit the Earth's domain since any other way would cause the particles to scatter sideways. The real question is, why are charged particles attracted to or repelled from the Earth, what is the driving force? Is the Earth at a different voltage potential than the rest ofthe space surrounding it? Different than the contents of CMEs? Or perhaps the Earth is part of a circuit?
The electric field is the driver (gas pedal), the magnetic field only steers.
Now to the re-connection... I really don't see much point in studying these noisy micro-phenomena in great detail.
It's like pouring water out of a bottle on the street and trying to analyse why and how different water stream are exactly formed, the important thing is to know that water flows downhill.
Whenever I water my plants too much, they start to overflow onto the floor.
The first one creates a stream towards the lower part of the floor. The next plant also creates a stream flowing downhill. If the second water stream happens to cross paths with the first one, it will tend to join and reinforce the first stream rather than continuing on a path of its own.
Voila, they "connected". From my point of view, magnetic "re-connection" is somewhat similar.
At least I hope the analogy demonstrates the point.

seasmith
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Re: Magnetic Reconnection: Plasma Physics 101

Unread post by seasmith » Wed Apr 02, 2014 2:20 pm

~
Obviously i agree with the EE's and with the EU perspective that Re-Connection is a Wrong term; which is why i seek more accurate and useful terms when referring to the re-adjustments that magnetic flux-fields do exhibit, when brought in to close proximity with each other.

However, you did not address the "permanent magnets" question, posed on the previous page.
:?:

justcurious
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Re: Magnetic Reconnection: Plasma Physics 101

Unread post by justcurious » Sun Apr 06, 2014 3:46 pm

seasmith wrote:~
Obviously i agree with the EE's and with the EU perspective that Re-Connection is a Wrong term; which is why i seek more accurate and useful terms when referring to the re-adjustments that magnetic flux-fields do exhibit, when brought in to close proximity with each other.

However, you did not address the "permanent magnets" question, posed on the previous page.
:?:
I thought I addressed the question, or perhaps I didn't understand it well?
The fields of the two magnets will add to each-other. they do not interact.
So what would be a better term for "magnetic re-connection"? I really don't know can't think of a short catchy term.
Charge/plasma flow re-organization? How would you call the process in a plasma ball or lightning when the electric arcs combine into one, split up, recombine etc?
If you want to understand how magnets work, I found this link to be the best summary: http://science.howstuffworks.com/magnet.htm

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StefanR
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Re: Magnetic Reconnection: Plasma Physics 101

Unread post by StefanR » Mon Apr 07, 2014 4:49 am

There's an old thread with some info pertaining to Whistler waves and reconnection. It moves from whistler specific information to the vortex activity in reconnection and double layers. A lot is a much as possible relating to experiment and observations and there are a few simulations.

Whistler waves, double layers, magnetic reconnection
http://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/forum/phpB ... ?f=3&t=348
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

seasmith
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Re: Magnetic Reconnection: Plasma Physics 101

Unread post by seasmith » Mon Apr 07, 2014 9:30 am


Hi Stefan,

I remember that Whistler thread, there is a wealth of good info and links assembled there.;

Justcurious wrote:
The fields of the two magnets will add to each-other. they do not interact.
...
If you want to understand how magnets work, I found this link to be the best summary: http://science.howstuffworks.com/magnet.htm

That "howstuffworks" blog has lots to say about magnets, but not much about how they actually work, and nothing about multiple magnetic flux fields in the same space. On page 4 they mention that magnetic vectors are produced by electrons, but don't make the connection to how magnetic flux propagates thru space.

They do hoverer note that "ferromagnetic materials are crystalline". That's important, because it helps to explain the scale-up of magnetic effects from atomic to macro scales. Atoms organize to crystals, which create domains, which scale up to magnets, which organize flux fields, which create their own domains.
[A bit like octahedral molecular forms of some chalcogens form similar microscopic crystals and planes (forces) which create similar macro-crystals, etc…]
In that vein we may consider these interacting (in 3D space) magnetic forms and structures, as applied to magnets:

Bloch wall[edit]
A Bloch wall is a narrow transition region at the boundary between magnetic domains, over which the magnetization changes from its value in one domain to that in the next, named after the physicist Felix Bloch. The magnetization rotates through the plane of the domain wall (see above image) unlike the Néel wall where the rotation is within the plane of the domain wall, see the external link below to view an example of a Bloch and Néel wall.
Bloch domain walls appear in bulk materials, i.e. when sizes of magnetic material are considerably larger than domain wall width (according to the width definition of Lilley [16]). In this case energy of the demagnetization field does not impact the micromagnetic structure of wall. The mixed cases are possible as well when demagnetization field changes the magnetic domains (magnetization direction in domains) but not the domain walls.[17]

Néel wall[edit]
A Néel wall is a narrow transition region between magnetic domains, named after the French physicist Louis Néel. In the Neel wall, the magnetisation rotates from the direction of the first domain to the direction of the second, with a rotation that is within the plane of the domain wall. It consists of a core with fast varying rotation and two tails where the rotation logarithmically decays. Néel walls are the common magnetic domain wall type in very thin film where the exchange length is very large compared to the thickness. Néel walls would spread across the whole volume if it weren't for magnetic anisotropy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_wall_(magnetism)

After spring break i'll try to get back to this discussion and propagation of magflux in space. So's not to derail this Re-connection thread, hope you won't mind if it's taken up in the Magnetism thread.

justcurious
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Re: Magnetic Reconnection: Plasma Physics 101

Unread post by justcurious » Tue Apr 08, 2014 8:45 am

seasmith wrote:

Justcurious wrote:
The fields of the two magnets will add to each-other. they do not interact.
...
If you want to understand how magnets work, I found this link to be the best summary: http://science.howstuffworks.com/magnet.htm

That "howstuffworks" blog has lots to say about magnets, but not much about how they actually work, and nothing about multiple magnetic flux fields in the same space. On page 4 they mention that magnetic vectors are produced by electrons, but don't make the connection to how magnetic flux propagates thru space.
The howstuffworks was meant to address how permanent magnets work, and describes "magnetic domains", the solid part of permanent magnets at a microscopic scale. At a certain scale, things get a bit blurry and we get into quantum physics (as explained by howstuffworks).
Regarding how "magnetic flux lines" from several permanent magnets occupying the same space interact, the answer is that they don't. They add to each-other. Magnetic lines are not real, they are used in drawing to show the general shape and strength of fields. There are some who believe that magnetic lines are real (for example Eric Dollard), but that is speculative, I would haven't seen an experiment that confirms (or refutes) this.
Most of all engineering in electromagnetism is derived from the foundational science as described mathematicaly by the Maxwell-Heaviside equations. According to those principles, magnetic fields do not interact with other magnetic fields. The reason some astrophysicists think that magnetic field lines interact is probably because they see "field aligned" currents (ie Birkeland currents) and interpret them as magnetic field lines.
Regarding how "flux lines" propagate through space, there is a large body of scientists who are convinced (as were most scientists pre-Einstein/Maxwell) that the fields and waves must propagate through a medium, commonly dubbed as the Aether. There is a lot of literature on the net about the Aether, and plenty of good arguments for and against. If nature is an indicator, all waves propagate through a medium, or else what are they "waving"?

seasmith
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Re: Magnetic Reconnection: Plasma Physics 101

Unread post by seasmith » Tue Apr 08, 2014 12:05 pm

~
Justcurious,

I don't understand your repeated reference to "lines".

They are not necessary, and i haven't used the term in my posts. They are mainly a mathematical construct and artifact of Detection Devices.
Magnetic fields and domains are real at micro And macro scale. They don't just "add", any more than light waves only "add".

Real EM/ES action is usually a little more complicated in real 3D space & time, than the pop-science blogs might lead one to believe.
;)

justcurious
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Re: Magnetic Reconnection: Plasma Physics 101

Unread post by justcurious » Tue Apr 08, 2014 2:52 pm

seasmith wrote:~
I don't understand your repeated reference to "lines".
I guess there must have been a miscommunication somewhere :)

I was reading the posts about separate magnetic spheres in previous pages, and how they flux lines interact when they occupy the same space,I assumed the reference was to the space between the rather than inside them.
Well hopefully the posts will be useful to someone else and it wasn't a total waste of time.
It's all good.

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