A particle accelerator at Sandia National Laboratories has heated a swarm of charged particles to a record 2 billion degrees Kelvin, a temperature beyond that of a star's interior.
Wow. That'll get your buns nice and toasty.
[Sandia's Z machine]... normally passes 20 million amps of electrical current through a cluster of tungsten wires about the size of a spool of thread. The massive electrical pulse instantly vaporizes the wires into a cloud of charged, superhot particles known as plasma. At the same time, the Z machine compresses the plasma in a powerful magnetic field. Almost instantly, the particles smash together in a collision that can emit temperatures in the millions of degrees. Sandia boosted the Z machine's output into the billions of degrees in part by substituting steel wires around a larger, coffee cup-sized core. Increasing the size of the core increased the distance the ions traveled, giving them more time to gain velocity and therefore energy. But the larger core did not account for all the heat generated in the collision. It also could not explain why the plasma particles did not stop moving once they collided with one another -- for about 10 billionths of a second, some unknown energy caused them to keep pushing back against the magnetic field. [emphasis added]
At the same time, the Z machine compresses the plasma in a powerful magnetic field. Almost instantly, the particles smash together in a collision that can emit temperatures in the millions of degrees.
Sandia boosted the Z machine's output into the billions of degrees in part by substituting steel wires around a larger, coffee cup-sized core. Increasing the size of the core increased the distance the ions traveled, giving them more time to gain velocity and therefore energy.
But the larger core did not account for all the heat generated in the collision. It also could not explain why the plasma particles did not stop moving once they collided with one another -- for about 10 billionths of a second, some unknown energy caused them to keep pushing back against the magnetic field. [emphasis added]
WTF, over?
Haines theorized that the energy of the Z machine's magnetic field itself added energy to the particles.
This is exciting news. Any of you physicist types know about these experiments?
a collision that can emit temperatures in the millions of degrees
I'll try to read the article and make sense of it... tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
Temperatures hotter than the interiors of stars
The interior of stars, man... in the core of a heavy star in the final stages of its development, by the time Si burning sets in, temperature is higher than that - the iron core that forms in the end (before the supernova explosion) can get to 10 billion K. Granted, such a state doesn't last for longer than a day or two, but if a neutron star is born in the process, its core temperature will be in the same range.
But if we are talking normal (main-sequence) stars, the Sun's core is probably 15 million K, the heaviest O stars would have one around 50 million K - now that is too low for comparison, tokamaks like JET exceeded that already by an order of magnitude. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Haines theorized that the rapid conversion of magnetic energy to a very high ion plasma temperature was achieved by unexpected instabilities at the point of ordinary stagnation: that is, the point at which ions and electrons should have been unable to travel further. The plasma should have collapsed, its internal energy radiated away. But for approximately 10 nanoseconds, some unknown energy was still pushing back against the magnetic field. Haines' explanation theorizes that Z's magnetic energies create microturbulences that increase the kinetic energies of ions caught in the field's grip. Already hot, the extra jolt of kinetic energy then produces increased heat, as ions and their accompanying electrons release energy through friction-like viscous mixing even after they should have been exhausted. High temperatures previously had been assumed to be produced entirely by the kinetic flight and intersection of ions and electrons, unaided by accompanying microturbulent fields.
Haines' explanation theorizes that Z's magnetic energies create microturbulences that increase the kinetic energies of ions caught in the field's grip. Already hot, the extra jolt of kinetic energy then produces increased heat, as ions and their accompanying electrons release energy through friction-like viscous mixing even after they should have been exhausted.
High temperatures previously had been assumed to be produced entirely by the kinetic flight and intersection of ions and electrons, unaided by accompanying microturbulent fields.
Yeah... and if you have to combine the two... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
