A theory developed by scientists to study nitrogen oxides, NOx, production by solar proton events shows that the NOx production rate is approximately equal to the rate of production of ion pairs during the proton impact. Since the bulk of ionization in such events is produced by secondary electron impacts, the same concept is used here to study the NOx production in low pressure discharges, cor...

During their entire lives, weakly electric fish produce an uninterrupted train of discharges to electrolocate objects and to communicate. In an attempt to learn about activity-dependent processes that might be involved in this ability, the continuous train of discharges of intact Gymnotus carapo was experimentally interrupted to investigate how this pausing affects post-pause electric organ dis...

Electric breakdown in air occurs for electric fields exceeding 34 kV/cm and results in a large current surge that propagates along unpredictable trajectories. Guiding such currents across specific paths in a controllable manner could allow protection against lightning strikes and high-voltage capacitor discharges. Such capabilities can be used for delivering charge to specific targets, for elec...

We present an effective contour model for electrical discharges deduced as the asymptotic limit of the minimal streamer model for the propagation of electric discharges, in the limit of small electron diffusion. The incorporation of curvature effects to the velocity propagation and not to the boundary conditions is a feature and makes it different from the classical Laplacian growth models. The...

The stability of electric arc discharges has been explored through the use of an energy balance coupled with charge conservation. In order to facilitate this analysis, a new model for the electrical conductivity function has been proposed. Asymptotic solutions for the arc governing equations have been obtained. Stability criteria have been developed from both the linear theory (infinitesimal si...

Methanol decomposition using a catalytic reactor with electric discharges was investigated in the present study. The methanol conversion at 190 °C was 58.0%; however, the methanol conversion increased by 65.9% under the electric discharge. An electric discharge produces high energy electrons with sufficient energy to break a C-OH bond.

[1] Wind-blown sand, or ‘saltation,’ creates sand dunes, erodes geological features, and could be a significant source of dust aerosols on Mars. Moreover, the electrification of sand and dust in saltation, dust storms, and dust devils could produce electric discharges and affect atmospheric chemistry. We present the first calculations of electric fields in martian saltation, using a numerical m...

In this paper, we apply a real time activity-dependent protocol to study how freely swimming weakly electric fish produce and process the timing of their own electric signals. Specifically, we address this study in the elephant fish, Gnathonemus petersii, an animal that uses weak discharges to locate obstacles or food while navigating, as well as for electro-communication with conspecifics. To ...