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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 98 » Issue 4
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 048501 (2007) [4 pages]

Production of Ball-Lightning-Like Luminous Balls by Electrical Discharges in Silicon

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Gerson Silva Paiva and Antonio Carlos Pavão
Departamento de Química Fundamental, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50740-540, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Elder Alpes de Vasconcelos*
Centro Acadêmico do Agreste, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 55002-970, Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brazil

Odim Mendes, Jr.
Departamento de Geofísica Espacial, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, 12245-970, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil

Eronides Felisberto da Silva, Jr.
Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50670-901, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Received 10 June 2006; published 24 January 2007

We performed electric arc discharges in pure Si to generate luminous balls with lifetime in the order of seconds and several properties usually reported for natural ball lightning. This simple experiment does not rely on energy sources and excitation mechanisms that are improbable in the natural phenomenon and clearly demonstrates the role of vaporization and oxidation of Si, as proposed by the Abrahamson-Dinniss theory for ball-lightning formation.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.048501
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.048501
PACS:
92.60.Pw, 52.80.Mg

*Corresponding author.

 
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