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Synchrotron mechanism of X-ray and gamma-ray emissions in lightning and spark discharges
X-ray and γ-ray emissions observed in lightning and long sparks are usually connected with the bremsstrahlung of high-energy runaway electrons. Here, an alternative physical mechanism for producing X-ray and gamma-ray emissions caused by the polarization current and associated electromagnetic field...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8494895/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34615930 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99336-3 |
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author | Petrov, N. I. |
author_facet | Petrov, N. I. |
author_sort | Petrov, N. I. |
collection | PubMed |
description | X-ray and γ-ray emissions observed in lightning and long sparks are usually connected with the bremsstrahlung of high-energy runaway electrons. Here, an alternative physical mechanism for producing X-ray and gamma-ray emissions caused by the polarization current and associated electromagnetic field moving with relativistic velocity along a curved discharge channel has been proposed. The existence of fast electromagnetic surface waves propagating along the lightning discharge channel at a speed close to the speed of light in vacuum is shown. The possibility of the production of microwave, X-ray and gamma-ray emissions by a polarization current pulse moving along a curved path via synchrotron radiation mechanism is pointed out. The existence of long tails in the power spectrum is shown, which explains observations of photon energies in the range of 10–100 MeV in the terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, as well as measured power spectrum of laboratory spark discharge. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8494895 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84948952021-10-08 Synchrotron mechanism of X-ray and gamma-ray emissions in lightning and spark discharges Petrov, N. I. Sci Rep Article X-ray and γ-ray emissions observed in lightning and long sparks are usually connected with the bremsstrahlung of high-energy runaway electrons. Here, an alternative physical mechanism for producing X-ray and gamma-ray emissions caused by the polarization current and associated electromagnetic field moving with relativistic velocity along a curved discharge channel has been proposed. The existence of fast electromagnetic surface waves propagating along the lightning discharge channel at a speed close to the speed of light in vacuum is shown. The possibility of the production of microwave, X-ray and gamma-ray emissions by a polarization current pulse moving along a curved path via synchrotron radiation mechanism is pointed out. The existence of long tails in the power spectrum is shown, which explains observations of photon energies in the range of 10–100 MeV in the terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, as well as measured power spectrum of laboratory spark discharge. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8494895/ /pubmed/34615930 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99336-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Petrov, N. I. Synchrotron mechanism of X-ray and gamma-ray emissions in lightning and spark discharges |
title | Synchrotron mechanism of X-ray and gamma-ray emissions in lightning and spark discharges |
title_full | Synchrotron mechanism of X-ray and gamma-ray emissions in lightning and spark discharges |
title_fullStr | Synchrotron mechanism of X-ray and gamma-ray emissions in lightning and spark discharges |
title_full_unstemmed | Synchrotron mechanism of X-ray and gamma-ray emissions in lightning and spark discharges |
title_short | Synchrotron mechanism of X-ray and gamma-ray emissions in lightning and spark discharges |
title_sort | synchrotron mechanism of x-ray and gamma-ray emissions in lightning and spark discharges |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8494895/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34615930 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99336-3 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT petrovni synchrotronmechanismofxrayandgammarayemissionsinlightningandsparkdischarges |