Welcome to Space News from the Electric Universe,
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In the 21st century,
astronomical literature with increasing frequency recognizes a long taboo subject --
the existence of electric currents in space.
From the electrical Earth-Sun connection,
to the electric currents connecting the gas giant planets to their moons,
to the vast cosmic jets of active galactic nuclei.
Yet these recognitions overwhelmingly
hold to ideas of strange gravitational and magnetic processes
producing electric currents in kinds of closed systems.
But what of the overwhelming evidence for the electrical circuitry
connecting celestial objects and driving countless astrophysical phenomena?
In part one of this four-part presentation,
physicist Eugene Bagashov begins outlining the research that he and several others
in the Electric Universe community have been conducting into this question,
based on retired professor Dr. Donald Scott's mathematical modeling of the structure
of a type of electric current called a Birkeland current.
One of the important areas of research in the Electric Universe paradigm
is the study of the plasma current filaments
traversing the enormous interstellar or even intergalactic distances.
Indeed, in the recent years we've seen more and more evidence
that these gigantic filamentary structures
might be the answer for long-standing problems in cosmology
such as the baryon mass deficit.
Moreover, they seem to play a crucial role even on smaller scales,
as Herschel telescope data has clearly shown
that the stars are formed along the interstellar filaments.
It would be quite logical to assume therefore,
that the whole dynamics of motion of matter even on smaller scales
would be predetermined by these nested fractal systems of plasma currents.
This is probably the most important area of further astrophysical research
under the Electric or Plasma Universe umbrella,
and in the following material I'd like to highlight some of the important evidence for that
and point out the possible directions of further research.
I believe the problem that we're dealing with here is twofold,
and both parts should be solved simultaneously.
So the first part would be the development of a theory that would properly describe
the dynamics of these plasma filaments according to the laws of electromagnetism.
An important special case in this problem
would be the description of the dynamics of several
or at the very least two interacting filaments,
as this set up seems to be crucial for understanding of the structure and behavior of galaxies.
And the second part would be purely observational.
We should use the massive amounts of data that has been produced
in the last few decades by various astronomical observatories
on the positions and orientations of cosmic bodies
in the solar system and in our local surroundings.
This might give us an idea of what kind of plasma and field arrangement
is present in our solar system's immediate vicinity.
At the same time, it would be an appropriate tool
for verification or falsification of the theoretical part.
Recently, the first part of the problem
has already been addressed by the works of Don Scott
who has continued the work of Stig Lindquist
from some decades ago and derived a model for a single Birkeland current filament.
A lot of what I'm going to mention later depends on the properties of this model
and the interpretation of its implications made by Jim Weninger,
whose vast knowledge of the various inconsistencies in observations of nearby stars
is an important asset for this endeavor.
So let's briefly examine the properties of the model proposed by Don Scott.
Firstly, it's important to note that it has an inherently cylindrical geometry.
One of the consequences of that in mathematical terms
is, that the solutions of Maxwell's equations for such a system
would be represented by the so-called Bessel functions
which represent cylindrical harmonics.
The overall structure of the filament might be roughly represented
as a series of embedded cylindrical shells,
each one of them having a different electric current direction and strength.
Michael Clarage recently proposed to call these structures coaxial currents
using the analogy of coaxial electrical cable.
And the other important property of this system
is, that in each point the magnetic field is parallel to the electric current.
That way the configuration with minimal amount of internal stress could be reached
and it seems to represent the most stable minimal energy configuration.
Dr. Scott's paper gives some important illustrations
that might help understand the structure better.
In particular, we might look at the graphs showing the dependence of electric current
and magnetic field strength on the distance from the axis of a current.
As they are parallel to each other in each point,
all the conclusions for a magnetic field are valid also for the current itself.
So as can be seen from this picture,
the value of azimuthal and radial magnetic fields change in non-synchronous manner,
as we move farther from the axis.
At some points the axial component of the field vanishes and it becomes strictly tangential,
and at other points the azimuthal component disappears,
so the field becomes strictly axial,
which means parallel to the axis of the whole structure.
Moreover you could see here, that the values of both components
change signs at various distances,
so each consecutive cylindrical shell has the electric current and magnetic field
directed oppositely with respect to the previous shell.
This is an important property, the implications of which
we'll discuss in the following materials.
The next picture given in the paper, shows us a cross-section of the current structure,
where the circles with arrows depict shells of current,
where the axial component of the current goes to zero
and it becomes purely tangential, which means circular in this case.
You might also see that each next shell has the opposite direction of current,
and another picture shows the axial current strengths in each cross-section of a filament.
The following pictures show another way of visualization.
Here we see the vertical cylindrical plasma filament taken at different radii,
and the vectors show the changes in direction of the current and magnetic field,
as we go farther away from the axis.
The last picture I'd propose you to consider,
also demonstrates the characteristic forms of the current
and it also demonstrates the scalability of the model
showing the occurrence with the same structure
but having a different force free parameter alpha.
Now that we've discussed perhaps the most important bit of theoretical work
in this field so far, let us turn to the observations.
Do we have any examples of candidates
for such a plasma filament structure in our vicinity?
Jim Weninger believes, and so far I haven't seen evidence against such an idea,
that the so-called local interstellar chimney might be a good example.
So the local chimney is a plasma structure that, to a first approximation,
might be represented as a cylindrical tube
roughly 500 light-years in diameter and almost perpendicular to the Galactic plane.
The Sun is sitting near the axis of this structure but not quite there.
The chimney is thought to be a result of supernova explosions
that have expelled the matter away and created this cavity,
or at least what astronomers believe to be a cavity.
However if we consider this as a cylindrical plasma current,
then we might try to make comparisons with the theory
and try to put together various contradictory and problematic observations.
We'll examine some of the most prominent examples in the following materials.
Here I'd like to briefly mention that our local chimney
is not the only example of such cylindrical shells that has been observed.
For example, one paper reports multiple similar structures
accompanied by smaller plasma filaments about 11,000 light-years away from us.
But that's definitely not all that we know about.
I've already mentioned the importance of the modeling of pairs of plasma filaments,
and there is a very prominent structure of that sort called the Double Helix Nebula.
This structure is located pretty close to the galactic center,
about 300 light years away from it, that is about 100 times closer than we are,
and it clearly represents a pair of intertwining plasma filaments.
What is also quite remarkable about it
is that firstly, it is also roughly perpendicular to the galactic plane
and secondly, it seems to be a part of a larger plasma formation.
It is entirely possible that what we observe here,
is the interaction of the two plasma filaments
that both move roughly parallel to the much weaker background magnetic field
at the same time winding around each other.
It is possible to conclude from that
that our own local chimney might be a part of larger structure.
Moreover, as the Birkeland currents demonstrate good scalability,
one might expect that the chimney would contain smaller sub-filaments inside it,
some of which might also interact with each other and form more complex helical patterns.
In particular, we might turn our attention to the so-called Local Interstellar Cloud
which sits inside the local chimney
and represents the medium with which our heliosphere directly interacts.
From the many depictions of it that you might find, it is evident that
it represents a complex arrangement of various quasi-filamentary structures.
I wish to stress that, what is being reported here is a work in progress,
currently maintained by a small group of people
including myself, David Johnson, Jim Weninger, and Chris Sellye.
It is a long term project,
so I'd like to encourage any possible cooperation in that part,
say if other people in the EU community would like to join the effort.
In the next videos, I would highlight
some of the observational and theoretical hints we've got so far
to give you a better idea of what we're dealing with.
Stay tuned for part 2