Posted on 07/15/2021 12:02:43 PM PDT by Red Badger
Plasma test in the MAST tokamak, a plasma fusion chamber.
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A new way of classifying magnetized plasma has led to the discovery of 10 previously unknown topological phases of plasma.
Learning more about these phases, and specifically the transitions between them, could help plasma physicists chase down the white whale of energy - plasma fusion. That's because the transitions between them support edge modes, or waves at the intersection of the plasma surfaces.
These exotic excitations could broaden the potential practical uses for magnetized plasma.
"These findings could lead to possible applications of these exotic excitations in space and laboratory plasmas," said physicist Yichen Fu of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).
"The next step is to explore what these excitations could do and how they might be utilized."
Recent research has started to consider plasma topologically, that is, studying the shapes of the waves inside it.
However, the topological phases in cold magnetized plasma, and the transitions between them, have not been comprehensively explored. This is important, because it can help us understand how plasma interacts with itself.
Diagram of the topological phases. (Fu & Qin, Nature Communications, 2021)
Fu and his colleague, PPPL physicist Hong Qin, sought to mathematically describe the topological phases of a cold plasma in a uniform magnetic field. They found 10 different novel phases, separated by edge modes - the boundary between two topologically different regions within the plasma. Numerical studies verified the pair's findings.
"The discovery of the 10 phases in plasma marks a primary development in plasma physics," Qin said.
"The first and foremost step in any scientific endeavor is to classify the objects under investigation. Any new classification scheme will lead to improvement in our theoretical understanding and subsequent advances in technology."
What those advances might be is not speculated in the paper, but there are some interesting possibilities. Plasma is often called the fourth state of matter, a gas in which electrons have been stripped from the atoms therein, forming an ionized material.
It's abundant in space - in fact, it's the state of matter found in stars, which is key to a potential plasma technology.
Deep in their plasma cores, stars fuse nuclei to form heavier elements, a process that generates vast amounts of energy. Scientists have been working towards plasma fusion here on Earth as a form of energy production that will be clean and practically limitless.
As you might imagine, this is extremely difficult. We need to be able to maintain a stable plasma at temperatures hotter than the Sun for long enough to generate and extract energy. There are many obstacles, and so we're pretty far from that goal - but better understanding plasma can only bring us closer.
This research represents a step in that direction.
"The most important progress in the paper is looking at plasma based on its topological properties and identifying its topological phases," Fu said.
"Based on these phases we identify the necessary and sufficient condition[s] for the excitations of these localized waves. As for how this progress can be applied to facilitate fusion energy research, we have to find out."
The research has been published in Nature Communications.
Fusion Ping!..................
It will be up and running in another 20 years or so./S
That’s what you said 20 years ago.
I’m thinking that the topological phases they are talking about are the harmonic standing wave patterns that plasmas tend to arrange themselves in, which are basically identical to electron “cloud” configurations.
Like flocks of birds....................
Cool. I was thinking of posting this very article.
Wonder Warthog is running the cold fusion ping list.
I just want a Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.
Now there are thirteen states of matter?!?
And in 20 years he'll say it again!
Just what you see, pal.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coldfusion/index?tab=articles
Keywords: ColdFusion; LENR; lanr; CMNS
chat—science
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Vortex-L
http://tinyurl.com/pxtqx3y
Best book to get started on this subject:
EXCESS HEAT
Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed by Charles Beaudette
https://www.abebooks.com/9780967854809/Excess-Heat-Why-Cold-Fusion-0967854806/plp
Updated No Internal Trolling Rules for FR per Jim Robinson
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3928396/posts
If someone says stop, then stop. Do not enter onto a thread on a topic you don’t like just to disrupt, rattle cages, poke sticks, insult the regulars, or engage in trolling activities, etc. ~Jim Robinson
The issue isn’t whether we allow skepticism, it is whether we allow hyperskeptics and skeptopaths to ruin the scientific dialog. Civil discussion of the involved science is desired.
realistically this will be weaponized before its a power source
Uncontrolled Hot Fusion was weaponized in the 1950s. Commonly called the H-bomb.
This appears to be a possible theoretical basis for the experimental SAFIRE data.
Topological phases and bulk-edge correspondence of magnetized cold plasmas
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24189-3
Yichen Fu & Hong Qin
Nature Communications volume 12, Article number: 3924 (2021)
Abstract
Plasmas have been recently studied as topological materials. However, a comprehensive picture of topological phases and topological phase transitions in cold magnetized plasmas is still missing. Here we systematically map out all the topological phases and establish the bulk-edge correspondence in cold magnetized plasmas. We find that for the linear eigenmodes, there are 10 topological phases in the parameter space of density n, magnetic field B, and parallel wavenumber kz, separated by the surfaces of Langmuir wave-L wave resonance, Langmuir wave-cyclotron wave resonance, and zero magnetic field. For fixed B and kz, only the phase transition at the Langmuir wave-cyclotron wave resonance corresponds to edge modes. A sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of this type of edge modes is given and verified by numerical solutions. We demonstrate that edge modes exist not only on a plasma-vacuum interface but also on more general plasma-plasma interfaces. This finding broadens the possible applications of these exotic excitations in space and laboratory plasmas.
26 if you count their ANTI-Matter counterparts!............
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