Circulating light at continuous electrical current

Abstract

The most famous object in the world of circulating light is ball lightning (BL). In our opinion, BL is a thin spherical layer of highly compressed air, in which ordinary white light circulates in all possible directions. The refractive index of a spherical shell in a form of highly compressed air is greater than that of the surrounding space and the shell is a non-zero curvature light guide that prevents light from being radiated into free space. At the same time, there are other objects in which circulating light is present and determines their anomalous properties. These are liquid balls of silicon that can bounce on a sheet of paper dozens of times. This is a ball periodically flashing in cold water under the action of a standing spherical acoustic wave. These are luminous objects produced by an erosive gas discharge that can burn through the thin foil. However, the lifetime of such objects is, at best, a few seconds. At the same time, luminous objects have been known for more than a century that arise from a continuous electric current between damp electrodes. These objects exist indefinitely as long as there is a continuous electrical current. We analyze the properties of these objects for the presence of circulating light in them.