Some excellent posts on this forum... much of the confusion and questions i see quite often... and at times share!
Earlier SJ touched on 'weakly ionized plasma'. This this still constitutes a plasma, yes this still constitutes current flow. ie Heliospheric current sheet 3 x 10^9 amperes.
Craig made some great comments regarding not all plasma's emit synchrotron radiation.
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Yes. Its certainly confusing from the outset. Very tiny amounts of plasma mixed in with ionised gas is a pretty weak argument for the claim that 99%, (by volume), of the universe is made from plasma (a claim made early on).
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I think the claim here would be since the matter (weakly ionised plasma) is dominated by electromagnetic forces, behavior and function it is deemed a plasma.
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Look at the size of the driving current....there'd be sychrotron radiation galor!!!
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This would of-course depend on the density, see Craig above. Double layers are also *not* always formed, thus are *not* expected to be seen everywhere.
I think we are kind of hitting on some of the many differences between what an electrical engineer or plasma physicist deems a 'plasma'.... and what might commonly be described as a plasma by astrophysicists... ie "hot gas only"....
Other than that i've enjoyed the many insights and questions in this thread.... this kind of discussion helps us all.
Best,