Ball Lightning as a Self-organized Complexity
Loading...
Date
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Description
The ball lightning phenomenon is explained in the frame of a self-organization scenario suggested by experiments performed on the spontaneously generated complex spherical space charge configuration in plasma. Originated in a hot plasma, suddenly created in a point where a lightning flash strikes the Earth surface, the ball lightning appearance proves the ability of nature to generate, by self-organization, complex structures able to ensure their own existence by exchange of matter and energy with the surroundings. Their subsequent evolution depends on the environment where they are born. Under contemporary Earth conditions the lifetime of such complexities is relatively short. A similar self-organization mechanism, produced by simple sparks in the earl Earth's atmosphere (chemically reactive plasma) is suggested to explain the genesis of complexities able to evolve into prebiotic structures.
8 pages, no figures, appeared in "Unifying Themes in Complex Systems", vol. IIIB, eds. A. A. Minai, Y. Bar-Yam, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, USA 2007, pp. 129-137 ISBN 978-3-540-35864-0 (Print) 978-3-540-35866-4 (Online)
8 pages, no figures, appeared in "Unifying Themes in Complex Systems", vol. IIIB, eds. A. A. Minai, Y. Bar-Yam, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, USA 2007, pp. 129-137 ISBN 978-3-540-35864-0 (Print) 978-3-540-35866-4 (Online)