Energy explained, again; example of plasma, pure energy (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, August 11, 2018, 19:44 (2296 days ago) @ David Turell

Experimental production of nanoplasma:

https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/incredibly-tiny-explosion-packs-a-big-punch

"Japanese researchers have captured the birth of a nanoplasma – a mixture of highly charged ions and electrons – in exquisite detail, as a high-powered X-ray laser roasted a microscopic cluster of atoms, tearing off electrons.

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"To untangle the complicated web of processes going on the team chose a very simple structure to study, a cluster of about 5000 xenon atoms injected into a vacuum, which they then hit with an X-ray laser pulse.

"A second laser pulse followed, this time from an infrared laser, which was absorbed by the fragments and ions. The patterns of the absorption told the scientists what the nanoplasma contained. By repeating the experiment, each time delaying the infrared laser a little more, they built a set of snapshots of the nanoplasma’s birth.

"Previous experiments had shown that on average at least six electrons eventually get blasted off each xenon atom, but the team’s set of new snapshots, published in the journal Physical Review X, show that it doesn’t all happen immediately.

"Instead, within 10 femtoseconds many of the xenon atoms have absorbed a lot of energy but not lost any electrons. Some atoms do lose electrons, and the attraction between the positive ions and the free electrons holds the plasma together. This leads to many collisions, which share the energy among the neutral atoms. The number of these atoms then declines over the next several hundred femtoseconds, as more ions form.

"Kumagai says the large initial population of highly-excited neutral xenon atoms were gateway states to the nanoplasma formation.

“'The excited atoms play an important role in the charge transfer and energy migration. It’s the first time we’ve caught this very fast step in nanoplasma formation,” he says."

comment: An example of pure energy plasma which was prent in an early state of the universe