dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaBall Lightning and Plasma Cohesion
| Authors | John Gilman |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0302063 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0302063 |
Abstract
The phenomenon of ball lightning has been observed for a long time, but the nature of these luminous balls has been unknown. It is proposed here that they consist of highy excited Rydberg atoms with large polarizabilities that bind them together. Thus the cohesion of the balls comes from photon exchange forces (London dispersion forces) rather than the more usual electron exchange (chemical) forces. The cohesion in plasmas generated at the back faces of detonating explosives has a similar basis. Estimates are given to justify this interpretation.
{
"annotation_id": "423367fc-8a67-479b-8df4-de3a624dc6cd",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:42.939000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:00:42.939000Z",
"file_hash": "b968207dc9d2882b870116a0a735e1e2a8fc9d52956fe43f4f1fbd15567a6926",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "The phenomenon of ball lightning has been observed for a long time, but the\nnature of these luminous balls has been unknown. It is proposed here that they\nconsist of highy excited Rydberg atoms with large polarizabilities that bind\nthem together. Thus the cohesion of the balls comes from photon exchange forces\n(London dispersion forces) rather than the more usual electron exchange\n(chemical) forces. The cohesion in plasmas generated at the back faces of\ndetonating explosives has a similar basis. Estimates are given to justify this\ninterpretation.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0302063",
"authors": [
"John Gilman"
],
"categories": [
"physics.plasm-ph",
"physics.chem-ph"
],
"title": "Ball Lightning and Plasma Cohesion",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0302063"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "e66b8370-bfef-4403-a3c4-0d9fe28a61d6",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}