From: Paul
Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 22:38:29 +0100
Subject: Re: [TSSP] Genetic optimisation (New: temperature sensitivity!!)
Bert, All Some remarkable observations there from Peek's work. I never realised there was such a sensitivity to temperature. I'm probably not alone in having assumed all along that a fairly high temperature would be required to memorise the passage of a streamer. Presumably the mean free path is longer at the lower density associated with the higher temperature? > It's beginning to look as though we may have pinpointed the > mechanism underlying bang-to-bang leader growth at relatively > low break rates! The previous leader leaves behind a high > temperature, lower density region having lowered dielectric > strength - the NEXT leader can reignite at a significantly > LOWER terminal potential, further extending the overall > leader length over a series of sequential "bangs"! That's quite an important statement! It does sound very plausible, given what you've reported from Peek. Does this mean that if a series of video frames from, say, ten consecutive bangs where captured synchronously, they would be expected to show the streamers developing further along each path with each frame? I suppose the first bang would reach the highest terminal voltage, and subsequent bangs would shunt more charge into the streamer loading than earlier bangs, and so would reach progressively lower peak voltages. Perhaps in lieu of a synchronised camera, a light curve could be obtained with some kind of photodetector? Cheers, -- Paul Nicholson, Manchester, UK. --
Maintainer Paul Nicholson, paul@abelian.demon.co.uk.