title: Interaction of streamer discharges in air and other oxygen-nitrogen mixtures.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: CWI, P.O. Box 94079, 1090 GB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luque
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ebert
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hundsdorfer