Electric Universe: Plasma Physics for Fun AND Profit!

Now for Part 3 of this series on plasma modeling.

1. Electric Universe: Real Plasma Physicists Use Mathematical Models
2. Electric Universe: Real Plasma Physicists Build Mathematical Models!

If, as EU supporters like to claim, plasmas are so intractable mathematically that no one can compute any model with any accuracy, why are commercial-grade software for modeling plasma systems on the market?  The fact that such systems exist at all is evidence that plasmas behave under the influence of natural laws and are not mystical, incomprehensible things.

There is plenty of published evidence of this fact.

Even More Research on Plasma Simulation Development

Consider this published dissertation: Studies of Electrical Plasma Discharges.  Note that Fig 1.10 of this work is generated by a plasma model, and is equivalent to the graphic in James Cobine's "Gaseous Conductors"  from the 1940s (pg 213, Figure 8.4) which EU supporters always like to reference.

Here are just SOME of the articles on plasma simulation codes I found with a quick search at the Cornell Preprint Server:

    •    From Theoretical Foundation to Invaluable Research Tool: Modern Hybrid Simulations
    •    dHybrid: a massively parallel code for hybrid simulations of space plasmas
    •    2.5 Dimensional Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Relativistic Plasma Collisions
    •    Three-dimensional PIC simulation of electron plasmas
    •    Particle simulation code for charge variable dusty plasmas
    •    New parametrization for differences between plasma kinetic codes
    •    Fokker-Planck and Quasilinear Codes
    •    Adaptive Multi-Dimensional Particle In Cell
    •    One-to-one direct modeling of experiments and astrophysical scenarios: pushing the envelope on kinetic plasma simulations

But more than just research papers, there are actually...


Available Plasma Simulation Codes

There is a publication that has collected a number of plasma simulation codes, with articles that serve as documentation:

• Computer Space Plasma Physics: Simulation Techniques and Software. Edited by H. Matsumoto and Y. Omura
• Computer Simulation of Space Plasmas. Edited by H. Matsumoto and T. Sato

Consider The Plasma Theory and Simulation Group at UC Berkeley.  If you scroll down the page, the group lists some of the projects, including commercial product development, where they have been involved.  A little further down the page, they actually provide a number of their plasma simulation codes in source code form.  Some of these codes were apparently used in designing a number of plasma devices so they have been tested against experiments.  Since they are provided in source code form, they could probably be compiled for almost any platform!  The EU supporters have NO excuses not to try these out for their favorite model of the Sun or galaxies.  But I will not hold my breath for them to do any actual work.

PLASMAKIN: a chemical kinetics package. From the SourceForge page:  “PLASMAKIN is a package to handle physical and chemical data used in plasma physics modeling and to compute gas-phase and gas-surface kinetics data: particle production and loss rates, photon emission spectra and energy exchange rates.”

VORPAL From the web page: “VORPAL enables researchers to simulate complex physical phenomena in less time and at a much lower cost than empirically testing process changes for plasma and vapor deposition processes. VORPAL offers a unique combination of physical models to cover the entire range of plasma simulation problems. Ionization and neutral gas models enable VORPAL to bridge the gap between plasma and neutral flow physics.”

PicUp 3D: This program models plasma interactions of satellites in the solar wind and other space environments.  A popular claim of EU supporters is that satellites cannot detect a 'uniform' flow of electrons or ions powering an electric Sun.  The problem with this notion is that the satellites are not uniform conductors so embedding in even a uniform plasma will generate voltages in the satellites structure and the electrons try to move into a configuration compatible with the plasma flow creating internal voltages which can sometimes kill the satellite.

But few of these codes are new.  How were they developed?

As with most of these types of codes, initially by a small group of researchers, or perhaps even an individual researcher, who had a need for a plasma code and wrote it themselves from scratch.  When the code was found to have reasonable agreement with the experiments the researcher(s) were doing, the code obtained wider distribution, and revisions by others.  Eventually, if the code is found useful for a wide range of problems where there is an industrial, commercial, or security interest, the code might get support from a larger team of researchers and developers, but that doesn't happen until the code has proven its usefulness.

Excuses, excuses...

Why haven't any of these codes been found (and utilized) by the EU 'theorists'?  There is sufficient documentation available that any interested party could run what currently exists, or write their own version in their programming language of choice.  Why aren't the Electric Universe books full of results of detailed simulations from which we can derive numbers which we can compare to actual measurements by spacecraft?

Why do we see nothing from EU but pictures (often taken by others doing legitimate research) and 'stories' indistinguishable from mythology?

Coming soon, some of the odds-n-ends on plasma modeling to close out (at least for now) this topic.