Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
Remember, Craig, all the good stuff they've detected occurs when the BC's breakdown because of reconnection and neutralisation of the the ionic plasmas. The BC's would only exist so long as the plasma remained ionised and a free path exists for the electrons/charge to flow, otherwise it just becomes a super thin cloud of hot neutral gas.
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I can't see what you're saying here Carl.
They went out looking for what they call the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM). This was theoretically predicted to exist, and there has been a lot of theoretical development done in order to select very specific detection technologies at certain redshifts and temperatures. At the higher temperatures, clearly this 'baryonic' matter (ie: gas) is ionised and may as well be referred to as 'plasma'.
Some of the papers I've read on the spectroscopic side, I do not understand. But I can see that they've considered many different mixes of ionised plasma and neutral gases before looking for these filaments.
I am not yet able to understand the fundamental differences between plasmas in a Birkeland Current, and one of these filaments (which they've now detected). I'm not sure there are any differences.
I guess it all comes down to one's definition of the plasma-at-hand and the generalised term 'Birkeland Current' plasma.
It begins to look like this may be where some of the confusion lies.
Until someone can tell me where I've gone astray, I still maintain that Amelia et al, have detected intergalactic filaments which could also be referred to as, (unfortunately), 'giant intergalactic Birkeland Currents', and they appear to persist for very long periods of time.
Cheers