Ball lightning as a bubble of light: Existence and stability

Abstract

Ball Lightning is considered as a ball light or bubble of light (BL) in framework of optical model of ball lightning. BL is a singularity of the conventional air atmosphere produced by conventional linear lightning. Unlike a shell of a soap bubble, a shell of BL is a thin spherical film of the conventional compressed air and white light only. There is nothing inside the film besides conventional atmosphere air at normal pressure. There is no plasma, electrons, ions, clusters nano-particles etc. in the shell. The shell is a thin film of the compressed atmosphere air where conventional intense white light is circulating in all possible directions. The intense light compresses the air due to the optical electrostriction pressure. In turn, the refractive index of the compressed air in the film is greater than that of surrounding air. The film is a two dimensional lightguide that prevents the radiation of light in free space. According to modern concepts, a bubble of light is an optical space incoherent spherical soliton. We have shown in numerous publications that behavior of BL derived from known physical laws where the optically induced forces are taken into account and puzzle and intriguing behavior of natural ball lightnings derived from numerous evidence of eyewitnesses are identical and a question about physical nature of ball lightning is closed. Now we investigate BL stability and show that BL is stable at great air pressure produced by the optical electrostriction pressure and great energy density of circulating light.