Plasma cosmology

From (The Plasma Universe Wikipedia-like Encyclopedia)

Kristian Birkeland. The year 1996 marked the Centennial Celebration of the founding of Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology, which may be traced to the research of Kristian Birkeland published in 1896. Birkeland formulated a theory about a plasma-filled universe populated with systems of nebula (galaxies)^[1]

Plasma cosmology is a model of the Universe in which plasma and electromagnetic forces play a significant role, in which an actualistic approach is preferred: i.e. starting from the observed present-state and trying to extrapolate backwards in time to even more ancient states.^[2]

Hannes Alfvén also investigated the merits of a cosmology in which the universe might be matter-antimatter symmetric. Based on the work of Oskar Klein, it is known as Klein-Alfvén Cosmology.

Plasma

At the first IEEE International Workshop on Plasma Cosmology held in La Jolla, California, in 1989, Hannes Alfvén reported:^[2]

..the Plasma Universe model is now leading to drastically new views of the structure of the universe. Their main characteristics are given by Fälthammar.^[3] Most important are the following:

• The same basic laws of plasma physics hold from laboratory and magnetospheric heliospheric plasmas out to interstellar and intergalactic plasmas.
• In order to understand the phenomena in a certain plasma region, it is necessary to map not only the magnetic but also the electric field and the electric currents.
• Space is filled with a network of currents which transfer energy and momentum over large or very large distances. The currents often pinch to filamentary or surface currents. The latter are likely to give space, as also interstellar and intergalactic space, a cellular structure.
• A number of plasma phenomena, like double layers, critical velocity, pinch effect, and the properties of electric circuits, are of decisive importance. The phenomena mentioned have been known for decades (or even more than a century), but up to now they have almost systematically been ignored in cosmic physics. If they are taken into account, not only interplanetary space but also interstellar and intergalactic space must have a cellular structure.

Approach

Plasma cosmology describes:

".. two different ways of approaching the prehistory of the present state of the plasma universe, or part of it.

• A. The Prophetic Approach

A guess is made about the state very long ago, and this is made credible by prophetic authority. This approach often assumes that there was a “creation” at a certain time, and it is often claimed that we know more about this event than about more recent times.

• B. The Actualistic Approach

We start from the observed present-state and try to extrapolate backwards in time to even more ancient states. From this follows that the further backwards we go, the larger is the uncertainty about the state. This approach does not necessarily lead to a “creation” at a certain time, nor does it exclude this possibility. In principle, it is also reconcilable with a universe which is “ungenerated and indestructible,” as Aristotle expressed it.^[2]

History

1996 marked the Centennial Celebration of the founding of Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology, whose origins may be traced to the research of Kristian Birkeland and his 1896 paper on cathodic rays and corpuscles and their analogies to astrophysical and cosmological phenomena.^{[4] [5]} Nearly a decade later, Birkeland's research led him to a new theory, in which he states:

"From the conceptions to which our experimental analogies lead us, it is possible to form, in a natural manner an interesting theory of the origin of the worlds. This theory differs from all earlier theories in that it assumes the existence of a universal directing force of electro–magnetic origin in addition to the force of gravitation, in order to explain the formation round the sun of planets -- which have almost circular orbits and are almost in the same plane —- of moons and rings about the planets, and of spiral and annular nebulae."^[6]

Jeff Kanipe writes in Astrophysics and Space Science, that:

"Plasma cosmology sprang from the pioneering work of Hannes Alfven. Stemming from his studies in the 1950s of synchrotron radiation—emission caused by electrons spiraling at nearly the speed of light in a magnetic field (Alfven and Herlofson, 1950b)^[7], Alfven proposed that sheets of electric currents must crisscross the universe (Alfven, 1950a;^[8] Alfven and Carl-Gunne_Fälthammar, 1962,^[9]). Interaction with these electromagnetic fields would enable plasmas to exhibit complex structure and motion. Thus, at the grandest scales, the universe would have a cellular and filamentary structure."^[10]

Peratt notes that there have been many who have helped pioneer plasma cosmology,^[11] including some cited in the first special issue in 1986, namely Kristian Birkeland, Irving Langmuir, P. A. M. Dirac, Karl G. Jansky, Grote Reber, Edward. V. Appleton, and Hannes Alfvén. Peratt further reiterates that "Plasma cosmology, or cosmology in the plasma universe [6]^[12], [is] derived by K. Birkeland, H. Alfvén, C.-G. Fälthammar, N. Herlofson, B. Lehnert, L. P. Block, P. Carlqvist, and a host of others".^[13]

The first International Conference on Plasma Cosmology was held in La Jolla, California between 20-22 February 1989,^[14]. Those contributing papers included Hannes Alfvén, Carl-Gunne Fälthammar, Timothy E. Eastman, Anthony L. Peratt, Rainer Beck, Mauri J. Valtonen and Gene G. Byrd, Eric J. Lerner, William Peter, Paul Marmet, John Kierein, Jean-Pierre Vigier, Daniel R. Wells, and Halton Arp.

Klein-Alfvén Cosmology

After work by Oskar Klein (1894-1977)^{[15] [16] [17] [18]}, collaboration with Hannes Alfvén further investigated the merits of a cosmology in which the universe might be matter-antimatter symmetric,^[19] Klein-Alfvén Cosmology tries to:

".. construct a universe such that: i) It is essentially matter-antimatter symmetric; ii) the Hubble expansion is caused by well-known processes (among them, energy release by annihilation) in a region of 10⁹ light years (a bigger "Big Bang"); iii) it does not contain large quantities of missing mass; and iv) it is highly inhomogeneous and has a cellular structure."^[2]

Alfvén further notes:

"..we do not know enough to exclude a Dirac Klein symmetry. On the other hand there is no decisive observational argument in favour of antimatter. (In Chapter VI of Cosmic Plasma this problem is discussed in some detail.) Hence it must be considered legitimate to study the consequences of both hypothesis; the Plasma Universe is symmetric or it consists of exclusively ordinary matter.^[20]

See also: Alpha-Centauri medal.

Criticism

In his 1993 book, theoretical cosmologist Jim Peebles criticized the cosmology of Klein (1971)^[21], and Alfvén's 1966 book, Worlds-Antiworlds,^[22] writing that "there is no way that the results can be consistent with the isotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation and X-ray backgrounds"^[23]

A 1967 paper by J. H. Hunter Jr. noted that:

"An approximate treatment of the Alfvén-Klein metagalaxy is presented with a view of determining whether this cosmology could account for the background black-body radiation in the Universe. It is shown that no non-rotating cosmological model of this type would have been able to establish a black-body radiation field at the epoch of minimum radius and then re-expand to infinity"^[24]

Notes

References

• 1989, 20-22 February, IEEE International Conference on Plasma Cosmology, Vol. 18, Feb. 1990 (Proceedings of the First Workshop on Plasma Cosmology), La Jolla, California. Including:

• Alfven, Hannes O. G, "Cosmology in the plasma universe - an introductory exposition" (1990) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (ISSN 0093-3813), vol. 18, Feb. 1990, p. 5-10. PEER REVIEWED

• 1993, 10-12 May, Second IEEE International Workshop on Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology,FULL TEXT (in Astrophysics and Space Science, Volume 227, Issue 1-2, pp. 277-297) held in Princeton, New Jersey PEER REVIEWED