Interaction of streamer discharges in air and other oxygen-nitrogen mixtures.
The interaction of streamers in nitrogen-oxygen mixtures such as air is studied. First, an efficient method for fully three-dimensional streamer simulations in multiprocessor machines is introduced. With its help, we find two competing mechanisms how two adjacent streamers can interact: through electrostatic repulsion and through attraction due to nonlocal photoionization. The nonintuitive effects of pressure and of the nitrogen-oxygen ratio are discussed. As photoionization is experimentally difficult to access, we finally suggest to measure it indirectly through streamer interactions.
Luque
A
A
CWI, P.O. Box 94079, 1090 GB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Ebert
U
U
Hundsdorfer
W
W