Hannes Alfvén considered a cosmic plasma to be part of a circuit, in the same way a laboratory plasma tube is part of a circuit. A battery with an emf Vb transmits a current around a circuit with a resistance Ro and inductance L. The voltage between the electrodes of the plasma depends on the current I, and various plasma parameters such as density, magnetic field, temperatures, etc. A plasma double layer behaves in a similar fashion.

Depending on the total resistance of the circuit, R + Ro (R can be negative), the plasma may be in equilibrium, or oscilate at a frequency that depends on the inductance L. So even if the plasma's parameters are known, the behaviour of the plasma depends on the outer circuit.

Every electric circuit is potentially explosive. If the plasma circuit is disrupted in the plasma double layer, the inductive energy in the whole circuit will be released in the plasma, and is equivalent to ½LI².

Image created by Ian Tresman on July 9th, 2005, based on an images by Hannes Alfvén in his book Cosmic Plasma (1981).

The PNG crusade bot automatically converted this image to the more efficient PNG format. The image was previously uploaded as "Cosmic-plasma circuits.gif".

23:26:50, 8 July 2005 . . Iantresman (Talk | Contribs) . . 480x258 (17,437 bytes) (Hannes Alfvén consider a cosmic plasma to be part of a circuit, in the same way a laboratory plasma tube is part of a circuit. A battery with an emf Vb transmits a current around a circuit with a resistance Ro and inductance L. The voltage between the el)