The Evidence for Electrical Currents in Cosmic Plasma
| Scientific Paper | |
|---|---|
| Title | The Evidence for Electrical Currents in Cosmic Plasma |
| Author(s) | Anthony L Peratt |
| Keywords | {{{keywords}}} |
| Published | 1990 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science |
| Volume | 18 |
| Number | 1 |
| Pages | 26-32 |
Abstract
With the advent of fully three-dimensional, fully electromagnetic, particle-in-cell simulations, investigations of Birkeland currents and magnetic-field-aligned electric fields have become possible in plasmas not accessible to in situ measurement, i.e., in plasmas having the dimensions of galaxies or systems of galaxies. The necessity for a three-dimensional electromagnetic approach derives from the fact that the evolution of magnetized plasmas involves complex geometries, intense self-fields, nonlinearities, and explicit time-dependence. A comparison of the synchrotron radiation properties of simulated currents to those of extragalactic sources provides observational evidence for galactic-dimensional Birkeland currents.