Theory by Indian Scientists on mystery behind complex phenomena in Plasma
Indian Scientists have recently developed a theory which helps to understand the complicated nature of Sun-Earth interaction that happening in the magnetosphere.
Context
Indian Scientists have recently developed a theory which helps to understand the complicated nature of Sun-Earth interaction that happening in the magnetosphere.
About the theory
- Researchers are working towards a detailed study of the ion-hole structures observed in various space and astrophysical environments.
- In 2017, NASA's latest expedition to unlock Sun-Earth interaction's complicated nature, the MMS spacecraft, observed negative monopolar potential.
- Monopolar potential is an electric field potentials whichcan be visualized in the form of single-humped pulse-type structures.
- The scientific community recognized its importance, and publications were presented.
- None of the available theories could explain the characteristics of these structures due to the exotic background conditions.
- A group consisting of Mr. Harikrishnan, Prof. Amar Kakad, and Prof. Bharati Kakad from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism(IIG) developed a theory.
Key points of the theory
- This new theory will help to unlock the mysteries of the ion-hole structures.
- Ion-hole structure is a localized plasma region where the ion density is lower than the surrounding plasma.
- The proposed theory tries to solve the conflict between the observations from Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission, a NASA robotic space mission to study the Earth's magnetosphereand theoretical predictions.
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Magnetosphere is an area of space around Earth that is controlled by the Earth’s magnetic field. |
- They have completely ruled out the necessity of the upper limit in the temperature ratio between ions and electrons for the generation of a special kind of wave called Bernstein Green Kruskal (BGK) waves.
- The new theory sheds light on the generation of these structures leading to the unraveling of nature's greatest mystery that causes phenomena –the plasma transport and heating of plasma - the fourth state of matter.
- They revealed that the electrons that are not part of ion hole dynamics also play a vital role.
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Fig: The structure of ion BGK waves is shown. The lower figure shows a two-dimensional plot of the trapped ion density, and the upper plot shows the three-dimensional variation of the trapped ion density. This clarifies that in phase space, they appear to have holes at the center. |
Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG)
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