2002-01-18T16:42+0300

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Thermonuclear reactions occurring in the sun

(Ter.Ink. N03-02, 18/01/2002) Vadim Pribytkov, theoretical physicist, permanent correspondent of Terra Incognita. Scientists are well aware that thermonuclear reactions occurring in the Sun, in general, consist in the conversion of hydrogen into helium and into heavier elements. But here is how these transformations are accomplished, there is no absolute clarity, more precisely, complete ambiguity prevails: the most important initial link is missing. Therefore, a fantastic reaction was invented for combining two protons into deuterium with the release of a positron and a neutrino. However, such a reaction is actually impossible because powerful repulsive forces act between the protons. ----What actually happens on the Sun? The first reaction is the birth of deuterium, the formation of which occurs when high pressure in a low-temperature plasma with a close connection of two hydrogen atoms. In this case, two hydrogen nuclei for a short period are almost nearby, while they are able to capture one of ...

(Ter. Inc. N03-02, 01/18/2002)

Vadim Pribytkov, theoretical physicist, permanent correspondent for Terra Incognita.

Scientists are well aware that thermonuclear reactions occurring in the Sun, in general, consist in the conversion of hydrogen into helium and into heavier elements. But here is how these transformations are accomplished, there is no absolute clarity, more precisely, complete ambiguity prevails: the most important initial link is missing. Therefore, a fantastic reaction was invented for combining two protons into deuterium with the release of a positron and a neutrino. However, such a reaction is actually impossible because powerful repulsive forces act between the protons.

What is really happening on the Sun?

The first reaction is the birth of deuterium, the formation of which occurs at high pressure in a low-temperature plasma with a close connection of two hydrogen atoms. In this case, two hydrogen nuclei for a short period are almost nearby, while they are able to capture one of the orbital electrons, which forms a neutron with one of the protons.

A similar reaction can also occur under other conditions, when a proton is introduced into a hydrogen atom. In this case, the capture of an orbital electron (K-capture) also occurs.

Finally, there may be such a reaction, when two protons come together for a short period, their combined forces are enough to capture a passing electron and form deuterium. Everything depends on the temperature of the plasma or gas in which these reactions take place. In this case, 1.4 MeV of energy is released.

Deuterium is the basis for the subsequent cycle of reactions, when two deuterium nuclei form tritium with the release of a proton, or helium-3 with the release of a neutron. Both reactions are equally probable and well known.

This is followed by the reactions of the combination of tritium with deuterium, tritium with tritium, helium-3 with deuterium, helium-3 with tritium, helium-3 with helium-3 with the formation of helium-4. At the same time, it highlights large quantity protons and neutrons. Neutrons are captured by helium-3 nuclei and all elements that have deuterium bonds.

These reactions are also confirmed by the fact that a huge amount of high-energy protons is ejected from the Sun as part of the solar wind. The most remarkable thing about all these reactions is that neither positrons nor neutrinos are produced during them. All reactions release energy.

In nature, everything happens much easier.

Further, from the nuclei of deuterium, tritium, helium-3, helium-4, more complex elements begin to form. In this case, the whole secret lies in the fact that helium-4 nuclei cannot connect directly with each other, because they repel each other. Their connection occurs through bundles of deuterium and tritium. Official science also does not take this moment into account at all and dumps helium-4 nuclei into one heap, which is impossible.

Just as fantastic as the official hydrogen cycle is the so-called carbon cycle, invented by G. Bethe in 1939, during which helium-4 is formed from four protons and, supposedly, positrons and neutrinos are also released.

In nature, everything happens much easier. Nature does not invent, as theorists do, new particles, but uses only those that it has. As we can see, the formation of elements begins with the addition of one electron by two protons (the so-called K-capture), as a result of which deuterium is obtained. K-capture is the only method for creating neutrons and is widely practiced by all other more complex nuclei. Quantum mechanics denies the presence of electrons in the nucleus, but it is impossible to build nuclei without electrons.

Already since the thirties, astrophysicists had no doubt that of the nuclear reactions in light elements, the only one capable of sufficiently long and vigorously supporting the radiation of stars main sequence diagram spectrum - luminosity, is the formation of helium from hydrogen. Other reactions either last too short a time (of course, on a cosmic scale!), Or give too little energy output.

However, the path of direct union of four hydrogen nuclei into a helium nucleus turned out to be impossible: the reaction of the transformation of hydrogen into helium in the depths of stars must go “roundabout ways”.

The first way consists in the sequential connection of first two hydrogen atoms, then the addition of a third to them, and so on.

The second way is to convert hydrogen into helium with the "help" of nitrogen and especially carbon atoms.

Although the first way, it would seem, is simpler, for quite a long time he did not enjoy "due respect", and astrophysicists believed that the main reaction that feeds energy to stars is the second way - the "carbon cycle".

Four protons go to build a helium nucleus, which by themselves would never want to form an α-particle if carbon did not help them.

In the chain of these reactions, carbon plays the role of a necessary accomplice and, as it were, an organizer. In chemical reactions, there are also such accomplices, called catalysts.

During the construction of helium, energy is not only not spent, but, on the contrary, is released. Indeed, the chain of transformations was accompanied by the emission of three γ-quanta and two positrons, which also turned into γ-radiation. The balance is: 10 -5 (4·1.00758-4.00390) = 0.02642·10 -5 atomic mass units.

The energy associated with this mass is released in the bowels of the star, seeping slowly to the surface and then radiating into the world space. The helium factory works continuously in the stars until the raw materials, i.e., hydrogen, run out. What happens next, we will tell further.

Carbon as a catalyst will last indefinitely.

At temperatures of the order of 20 million degrees, the action of the reactions of the carbon cycle is proportional to the 17th degree of temperature! At some distance from the center of the star, where the temperature is only 10% lower, energy production drops by a factor of 5, and where it is one and a half times lower, it drops by 800 times! Therefore, already not far from the central, most incandescent region, the formation of helium due to hydrogen does not occur. The rest of the hydrogen will turn into helium after the mixing of gases will bring it into the territory of the "factory" - to the center of the star.

In the early fifties, it became clear that at a temperature of 20 million degrees, and even more so at lower temperatures, the proton-proton reaction is even more effective, also leading to the loss of hydrogen and the formation of helium. Most likely, it proceeds in such a chain of transformations.

Two protons, colliding, emit a positron and a quantum of light, turning into a heavy isotope of hydrogen with a relative atomic mass 2. The latter, after merging with another proton, turns into an atom of the light isotope of hydrogen with a relative atomic mass of 2. The latter, after merging with another proton, turns into an atom of the light isotope of helium with a relative atomic mass of 3, while emitting an excess of mass in the form of radiation. If such atoms of light helium have accumulated enough, their nuclei upon collision form a normal helium atom with a relative atomic mass of 4 and two protons with an energy quantum in addition. So, in this process, three protons were lost, and two appeared - one proton decreased, but energy was emitted three times.

Apparently, the Sun and cooler main-sequence stars of the luminosity-spectrum diagram draw their energy from this source.

When all the hydrogen has been converted to helium, the star can still exist by converting helium into heavier elements. For example, the processes are:

4 2 He + 4 2 He → 8 4 Be + radiation,

4 2 He + 8 4 Be → 12 6 C + radiation.

In this case, one helium particle gives an energy output that is 8 times less than it gives the same particle in the carbon cycle described above.

Recently, physicists have found that in some stars the physical conditions allow the occurrence of still heavier elements, such as iron, and they calculate the proportion of the resulting elements in accordance with the abundance of elements that we find in nature.

Giant stars have an average energy output per unit mass much greater than that of the Sun. However, there is still no generally accepted point of view on the sources of energy in red giant stars. The sources of energy in them and their structure are not yet clear to us, but, apparently, they will soon become known. According to V.V. Sobolev, red giants can have the same structure as hot giants and have the same energy sources. But they are surrounded by vast rarefied and cold atmospheres, which give them the appearance of "cold giants".

The nuclei of some heavy atoms can be formed in the interiors of stars due to the combination of lighter atoms, and under certain conditions, even in their atmospheres.

There is no doubt that in the early period after the Big Bang, the tiny, very hot universe expanded and cooled until protons and neutrons were able to combine with each other to form atomic nuclei. What nuclei were obtained and in what proportion? This is a very interesting problem for cosmologists (scientists concerned with the origins of the universe), a problem that will eventually bring us back to the consideration of novae and supernovae. So let's look at it in some detail.

Atomic nuclei have a number of varieties. To understand these varieties, they are classified depending on the number of protons present in these nuclei. This number ranges from 1 to 100 or more.

Each proton has an electrical charge of +1. The other particles present in nuclei are neutrons, which have no electrical charge. Therefore, the total electric charge of an atomic nucleus is equal to the number of protons contained in it. A nucleus containing one proton has a charge of +1, a nucleus with two protons has a charge of +2, a nucleus with fifteen protons has a charge of +15, and so on. The number of protons in a given nucleus (or a number expressing the electric charge of the nucleus) is called the atomic number .

The universe is cooling more and more, and each nucleus is already able to catch a certain number of electrons. Each electron has an electrical charge of -1, and because opposite charges attract, the negatively charged electron tends to stay close to the positively charged nucleus. Under normal conditions, the number of electrons that can be held by a single nucleus is equal to the number of protons in this nucleus. When the number of protons in the nucleus is equal to the number of electrons surrounding it, the total electric charge of the nucleus and electrons is zero, and their combination gives a neutral atom. The number of protons or electrons corresponds to the atomic number.

A substance that is made up of atoms with the same atomic number is called an element. For example, hydrogen is an element consisting of atoms whose nuclei contain one proton and one electron near it. Such an atom is called a "hydrogen atom", and the nucleus of such an atom is called a "hydrogen nucleus". Thus, the atomic number of hydrogen is 1. Helium consists of helium atoms containing nuclei with two protons, hence the atomic number of helium is 2. Similarly, lithium has an atomic number of 3, beryllium - 4, boron - 5, carbon - 6, nitrogen - 7 , oxygen - 8, etc.

With the help of chemical analysis of the Earth's atmosphere, ocean and soil, it has been established that there are 81 stable elements, that is, 81 elements that will not undergo any changes in natural conditions indefinitely.

The least complex atom on Earth (in fact) is the hydrogen atom. The growth of the atomic number will lead us to the most complex stable atom on Earth. This is a bismuth atom with an atomic number of 83, i.e., each bismuth nucleus contains 83 protons.

Since there are 81 stable elements in total, two numbers must be omitted from the list of atomic numbers, and this is so: atoms with 43 protons and 61 protons are unstable, elements with atomic numbers 43 and 61, subjected to chemical analysis, not found in natural materials.

This, however, does not mean that elements with atomic numbers 43 and 61, or with numbers greater than 83, cannot exist temporarily. These atoms are unstable, so sooner or later, in one or more steps, they will decay into atoms that remain stable. This does not necessarily happen instantly, but may take a long time. Thorium (atomic number 90) and uranium (atomic number 92) require billions of years of atomic decay to become stable lead atoms (atomic number 82).

In fact, for all the long billions of years of the existence of the Earth, only a part of the thorium and uranium, which were originally present in its structure, managed to decay. About 80% of the original thorium and 50% of the uranium escaped decay and may still be in rocks today. earth's surface.

Although all 81 stable elements (plus thorium and uranium) are present in the earth's crust (its upper layers), but in different quantities. The most common are oxygen (atomic number 8), silicon (14), aluminum (13) and iron (26). Oxygen makes up 46.6% of the earth's crust, silicon - 27.7%, aluminum - 8.13%, iron -5%. This four forms almost seven-eighths of the earth's crust, one-eighth - all other elements.

Of course, these elements rarely exist in their pure form. Mixing, they tend to connect with each other. These combinations (or combinations of elements) of atoms are called compounds. Silicon and oxygen atoms bind to each other in a very whimsical way, to this compound (silicon / oxygen) atoms of iron, aluminum and other elements join here and there. Such compounds - silicates - are common rocks, of which the earth's crust mainly consists.

Since oxygen atoms themselves are lighter than other most common elements of the earth's crust, the total mass of oxygen contains more atoms than a similar mass of other elements. For every 1000 atoms of the earth's crust, there are 625 atoms of oxygen, 212 silicon, 65 aluminum and 19 iron, i.e. 92% of the atoms of the earth's crust fall, one way or another, on these four elements.

Earth's crust- not a test sample of the Universe and even the Earth as a whole. The "core" of the Earth (the central region comprising one-third of the planet's mass) is said to be composed almost entirely of iron. If we take this into consideration, then iron makes up 38% of the mass of the entire Earth, oxygen - 28%, silicon - 15%. The fourth most abundant element may be magnesium rather than aluminum, which makes up up to 7% of the earth's mass. These four elements together make up seven-eighths of the mass of the entire Earth. Then for every 1000 atoms in general on the Earth there are 480 atoms of oxygen, 215 of iron, 150 of silicon and 80 of magnesium, i.e. together this four makes up 92.5% of all the atoms of the Earth. But Earth is not a typical planet in the solar system. Perhaps Venus, Mercury, Mars and the Moon, very similar to the Earth in their structure, are composed of stony materials and, like Venus and Mercury, have an iron-rich core. To some extent, the same is true for satellites and some asteroids, but all these rocky worlds (with or without iron cores) do not make up half a percent of the total mass of all objects orbiting the Sun. The remaining 99.5% of the mass of the solar system (without the mass of the Sun) belongs to the four giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Only Jupiter (the largest of all) makes up more than 70% of the total mass.

Presumably Jupiter has a relatively small rocky-metal core. The structure of the giant planet, judging by the data of spectroscopy and samples of the planets, consists of hydrogen and helium. This seems to be true for other giant planets as well.

But let's get back to the Sun, whose mass is 500 times the mass of all planetary bodies combined - from Jupiter to a tiny speck of dust; we will find (mainly due to spectroscopy) that its volume is filled with the same hydrogen and helium. In fact, about 75% of its mass falls on hydrogen, 22% on helium, and 3% is all the other elements combined. The quantitative composition of the Sun's atoms will be such that for every 1000 Sun atoms there are 920 hydrogen atoms and 80 helium atoms. Less than one atom in a thousand represents all the other elements.

Undoubtedly, the Sun has the lion's share of the mass of the entire solar system, and we will not be very mistaken in deciding that its elemental composition is representative of the entire system as a whole. The overwhelming majority of stars resemble the Sun in their elemental composition. In addition, it is known that the rarefied gases that fill the interstellar and intergalactic space are also mainly hydrogen and helium.

Therefore, we can conclude that out of 1000 atoms of the entire Universe, 920 are hydrogen, 80 are helium, and less than one is everything else.

HYDROGEN AND HELIUM

Why is that? Is the hydrogen-helium universe linked to the Big Bang? Obviously yes. At least as far as Gamow's system of reasoning is concerned, a system improved but fundamentally unchanged.

Here's how it works. Very soon after the Big Bang, in a fraction of a second, the expanding universe cooled to the point where the constituents of atoms known to us were formed: protons, neutrons and electrons. In the conditions of the enormous temperature that still prevailed at that time, nothing more complicated could exist. The particles could not connect with each other: at such a temperature, even colliding, they immediately bounced off into different sides.

This remains true in proton-proton or neutron-neutron collisions, even at much lower temperatures, such as the temperature of the present universe. However, as the temperature early stages The evolution of the Universe continued to fall, the moment came when, during proton-neutron collisions, it became possible for two particles to stay together. They are held together by the so-called strong force, the strongest of the four known forces.

Proton-1 is the nucleus of hydrogen, as discussed earlier in this chapter. But the proton-neutron combination is also a hydrogen nucleus, because it has one proton, which is all it takes to qualify as a hydrogen nucleus. These two types of hydrogen nuclei (proton and proton - neutron) are called hydrogen isotopes and are defined depending on the total number of particles that they include. A proton with only one particle is the hydrogen-1 nucleus. The proton-neutron combination, which includes only two particles, is the hydrogen-2 nucleus.

At the high temperatures of the early universe, when various nuclei formed, the hydrogen-2 nucleus was not very stable. It sought either to decay into separate protons and neutrons, or to combine with additional particles, with the subsequent formation of more complex (but perhaps more stable) nuclei. A hydrogen-2 nucleus can collide with and join a proton, forming a nucleus composed of two protons and one neutron. In this combination, there are two protons, and we get a helium nucleus, and since there are three particles in the nucleus, this is helium-3.

If hydrogen-2 collides and closes with a neutron, a nucleus is formed, consisting of one proton and two neutrons (again, three particles together). The result is hydrogen-3.

Hydrogen-3 is unstable at any temperature, even in the low temperature of the modern universe, so it undergoes perpetual change, even if it is free from the influence of other particles or collisions with them. One of the two neutrons in the nucleus of hydrogen-3 sooner or later turns into a proton, and hydrogen-3 becomes helium-3. Under current conditions, this change is not too fast: half of the hydrogen-3 nuclei turn into helium-3 in a little over twelve years. At the enormous temperatures of the early universe, this change was undoubtedly more rapid.

So, we now have three types of nuclei that are stable under modern conditions: hydrogen-1, hydrogen-2 and helium-3.

Helium-3 particles bind to each other even more weakly than hydrogen-2 particles, and especially at the elevated temperatures of the early universe, helium-3 has a strong tendency to decay or change by further addition of particles.

If helium-3 happened to run into a proton and had to join it, then we would have a nucleus made up of three protons and a neutron. It would be lithium-4, which is unstable at any temperature, since even at the cool temperature of the earth's surface, one of its protons quickly turns into a neutron. The result is a combination of two protons - two neutrons, or helium-4.

Helium-4 is a very stable nucleus, the most stable at ordinary temperatures except for a single proton that forms hydrogen-1. Once formed, it has almost no tendency to decay, even at very high temperatures.

If helium-3 collides and combines with a neutron, helium-4 is immediately formed. If two hydrogen-2 nuclei collide and fuse, again helium-4 is formed. If helium-3 collides with hydrogen-2 or another helium-3, helium-4 is formed, and the excess particles are sifted out as individual protons and neutrons. Thus, helium-4 is formed at the expense of hydrogen-2 and helium-3.

In fact, when the Universe cooled to a temperature at which protons and neutrons, when combined, could build more complex nuclei, then the first such nucleus, formed in large quantities, was precisely helium-4.

As the Universe continued to expand and cool, hydrogen-2 and helium-3 became less and less willing to change, and some of them were, so to speak, frozen to an unchanging existence. Currently, only one hydrogen atom in every 7,000 is hydrogen-2; helium-3 is even rarer - only one atom of helium per million. So, without taking into account hydrogen-2 and helium-3, we can say that soon after the universe cooled down enough, it was made up of nuclei of hydrogen-1 and helium-4. Thus, the mass of the Universe was composed of 75% hydrogen-1 and 25% helium-4.

Over time, in places where the temperature was low enough, the nuclei attracted negatively charged electrons, which were held by the positively charged nuclei by the force of electromagnetic interaction - the second strongest of the four interactions. A single proton of the hydrogen-1 nucleus associated with one electron, and two protons of the helium-4 nucleus associated with two electrons. This is how hydrogen and helium atoms were formed. In quantitative terms, for every 1,000 atoms in the universe, there are 920 hydrogen-1 atoms and 80 helium-4 atoms.

This is the explanation for the hydrogen-helium universe. But wait a minute! What about atoms heavier than helium and with higher atomic weights? (Let's collect all atoms containing more than four particles in the nuclei under the sign "heavy atoms"). There are very few heavy atoms in the universe, yet they exist. How did they appear? Logic dictates that although helium-4 is very stable, it still has a slight tendency to combine with a proton, neutron, hydrogen-2, helium-3, or other helium-4, forming small amounts of various heavy atoms; this is the source of about 3% of the mass of today's universe, consisting of these atoms.

Unfortunately, this answer will not stand up to scrutiny. If helium-4 collided with hydrogen-1 (one proton) and they merged, there would be a nucleus with three protons and two neutrons. It would be lithium-5. If helium-4 were to collide and fuse with a neutron, the result would be a nucleus with two protons and three neutrons, or helium-5.

Neither lithium-5 nor helium-5, even formed in the conditions of our cooled universe, will survive for more than a few trillionths of a trillionth of a second. It is during this period of time that they will decay either into helium-4, or into a proton or neutron.

The possibility of helium-4 colliding and merging with hydrogen-2 or helium-3 is very elusive, given how rare the last two nuclei are in the primordial mixture. Any heavy atoms that could have formed in this way are too few to account for so many of the atoms that exist today. It is more possible to combine one helium-4 nucleus with another helium-4 nucleus. Such a double nucleus, consisting of four protons and four neutrons, should become beryllium-8. However, beryllium is another extremely unstable nucleus: even in the conditions of our current universe, it exists for less than a few hundredths of a trillionth of a second. Once formed, it immediately splits into two helium-4 nuclei.

Of course, something sensible would have happened if three nuclei of helium-4 met as a result of a “three-way” collision and stuck to each other. But the hope that this will happen in an environment where helium-4 is surrounded by hydrogen-1 dominating it is too small to take into account.

Therefore, by the time the universe has expanded and cooled to the point at which the formation of complex nuclei has ended, only hydrogen-1 and helium-4 are in abundance. If free neutrons remain, they decay into protons (hydrogen-1) and electrons. No heavy atoms are formed.

In such a universe, clouds of hydrogen-helium gas break up into galactic-sized masses, and the latter condense into stars and giant planets. As a result, both stars and giant planets are almost entirely composed of hydrogen and helium. And is there any point in worrying about some heavy atoms if they make up only 3% of the mass and less than 1% of the number of existing atoms?

It makes sense! This 3% needs to be explained. We must not neglect the negligible amount of heavy atoms in the stars and giant planets, because a planet like the Earth is composed almost exclusively of heavy atoms. Moreover, in the human body and in living beings in general, hydrogen makes up only 10% of the mass, and helium is completely absent. All the remaining 90% of the mass are heavy atoms.

In other words, if the universe had remained unchanged shortly after the Big Bang and the process of formation of nuclei had been completed, planets like the Earth, and life itself on it, in a certain form, would be completely impossible.

Before you and I could appear in this world, heavy atoms first had to be formed. But how?

LEAK FROM THE STARS

In fact, this is no longer a mystery to us, since we have already talked about how nuclei are formed in the depths of stars. In our Sun, for example, in its central regions, hydrogen is continuously converted into helium (hydrogen fusion, which serves as the source of the Sun's energy. Hydrogen fusion is also carried out in all other main sequence stars).

If this were the only possible transformation, and this transformation was destined to last indefinitely at its current rate, then all hydrogen would be synthesized and the Universe would consist of pure helium for about 500 billion years (30 - 40 times the age of our Universe) . Still, the appearance of massive atoms is not clear.

Massive atoms, as we now know, originate in the stellar core. But they are born only when it is time for such a star to leave the main sequence. By this climacteric moment, the nucleus is so dense and hot that the helium-4 nuclei collide with each other with the greatest speed and frequency. From time to time, three helium-4 nuclei collide and merge into one stable nucleus, consisting of six protons and six neutrons. It's carbon-12.

How can a triple collision occur in the core of a star now, and not in the period immediately after the Big Bang?

Well, in the cores of stars preparing to leave the main sequence, the temperature reaches approximately 100,000,000 °C under enormous pressure. Such temperatures and pressures are also inherent in a very young universe. But the core of a star has one major advantage: It's much easier for a triple helium-4 collision to occur if there are no other nuclei in the star's core other than hydrogen-1 nuclei shipping helium-4 nuclei.

This means that heavy nuclei have been formed in the interiors of stars throughout the history of the Universe, despite the fact that such nuclei were not formed immediately after the Big Bang. Moreover, both today and in the future, heavy nuclei will form in the cores of stars. And not only carbon nuclei, but all other massive nuclei, including iron, which, as was said, is the end of normal fusion processes in stars.

And yet two questions remain: 1) how do heavy nuclei, having arisen in the centers of stars, spread in the Universe in such a way that they are both on the Earth and in ourselves? 2) how do elements with more massive nuclei than iron nuclei manage to form? After all, the most massive stable core of iron is iron-58, consisting of 26 protons and 32 neutrons. And yet there are even heavier nuclei on Earth, up to uranium-238, which has 92 protons and 146 neutrons.

Let's look at the first question first. Are there processes that contribute to the spread of stellar material in the Universe?

Exist. And some of them we can clearly feel by studying our own Sun.

To the naked eye (with the necessary precautions), the Sun may appear to be a calm, featureless bright orb, but we know that it is in a state of perpetual storm. Huge temperatures in its interior cause convective movements in the upper layers (like in a pot of water about to boil). The solar matter is continuously rising here and there, breaking the surface, therefore the surface of the Sun is covered with "granules", which are convective columns for it. (Such a granule looks very small in photographs of the solar surface, but in fact it has the area of ​​a decent American or European state.)

The convective material expands and cools as it rises and, once on the surface, tends to go down again to make room for a new, hotter flow.

This eternal cycle does not stop for a moment, it helps the transfer of heat from the core to the surface of the Sun. From the surface, energy is released into space in the form of radiation, most of it is the light that we see and on which life itself on Earth depends.

The process of convection can sometimes lead to extraordinary events on the surface of the star, when not only radiation escapes into space, but also whole piles of real solar matter are ejected.

In 1842, a total eclipse of the Sun was observed in southern France and northern Italy. At that time, eclipses were rarely studied in detail, since they usually took place in areas remote from large astronomical observatories, and traveling long distances with a full load of special equipment was not at all easy. But the eclipse of 1842 passed near the astronomical centers of Western Europe, and the astronomers with their instruments all gathered there.

For the first time, it was noticed that around the solar rim there are some red-hot, purple-colored objects that became clearly visible when the disk of the Sun was covered by the Moon. It looked like jets of solar material shot into space, and these fiery tongues were called "prominences."

For a while, astronomers still hesitated as to whether these prominences belonged to the Moon or the Sun, but in 1851 another eclipse occurred, this time observed in Sweden, and careful observation showed that the prominences are a phenomenon, solar, and The moon has nothing to do with them.

Since then, prominences have been studied regularly and can now be observed with appropriate instruments at any time. You don't have to wait for a total eclipse to do this. Some prominences rise in a powerful arc and reach heights of tens of thousands of kilometers above the surface of the Sun. Others explode upward at a speed of 1300 km / s. Although prominences are the most spectacular phenomenon observed on the surface of the Sun, they still do not carry the most energy.

In 1859, the English astronomer Richard Carrington (1826-1875) noticed a star-shaped point of light flashing on the surface of the sun, which burned for five minutes and then disappeared. It was the first recorded sighting of what we now call a solar flare. Carrington himself thought that a large meteorite fell on the Sun.

Carrington's observation did not attract attention until the American astronomer George Hale invented the spectrohelioscope in 1926. This made it possible to observe the Sun in the light of special wavelengths. Solar flares are noticeably rich in some wavelengths of light, and when the Sun is viewed at these wavelengths, the flares are seen very brightly.

Now we know that solar flares are common, they are associated with sunspots, and when there are many sunspots on the Sun, small flares occur every few hours, and larger ones after a few weeks.

Solar flares are high-energy explosions on the solar surface, and those parts of the surface that flare are much hotter than other areas around them. A flare covering even a thousandth of the Sun's surface can send out more high-energy radiation (UV, X-rays, and even gamma rays) than the entire normal surface of the Sun would send out.

Although the prominences look very impressive and can exist for several days, the Sun loses very little matter through them. Flash is a completely different matter. They are less noticeable, many of them last only a few minutes, even the largest of them completely disappear after a couple of hours, but they have such a high energy that they shoot matter into space; this matter is forever lost to the Sun.

This began to be understood in 1843, when the German astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe (1789–1875), who observed the sun daily for seventeen years, reported that the number of sunspots on its surface waxed and waned over a period of about eleven years.

In 1852, the English physicist Edward Sabin (1788–1883) observed that perturbations magnetic field Earths ("magnetic storms") rise and fall at the same time as the sunspot cycle.

At first it was just a statistical statement, because no one knew what the connection could be. However, over time, when they began to understand the energetic nature of solar flares, a connection was discovered. Two days after a large solar flare erupted near the center of the solar disk (it was thus directly facing the Earth), the compass needles on Earth went rogue, and the northern lights took on a completely unusual look.

This two-day wait made a lot of sense. If these effects were caused by solar radiation, then the time interval between the outbreak and its consequences would be eight minutes: the solar radiation flies towards the Earth at the speed of light. But the delay of two days meant that whatever the “troublemaker” causing these effects, it must move from the Sun to the Earth at a speed of about 300 km / h. Of course, it is also fast, but in no way commensurate with the speed of light. Such speed can be expected from subatomic particles. These particles, ejected as a result of solar events in the direction of the Earth, carried electrical charges and, passing the Earth, should have affected the compass needles and the northern lights in this way. When the idea of ​​subatomic particles ejected by the Sun was understood and taken up, another feature of the Sun began to become clear.

When the Sun is in a state of total eclipse, then with a simple eye you can see a pearl-colored glow around it, in the center, in the place of the Sun, is the black disk of the cloudy Moon. This glow (or luminosity) is the solar corona, which takes its name from Latin word corona - a crown (the crown surrounds the Sun as if with a shining crown, or halo).

The mentioned solar eclipse of 1842 led to the beginning of the scientific study of prominences. Then for the first time the crown was carefully examined. It turned out that she also belongs to the Sun, not the Moon. Since 1860, photography, and later spectroscopy, has been involved in corona research.

In 1870 during the period solar eclipse In Spain, the American astronomer Charles Young (1834–1908) first studied the spectrum of the corona. In the spectrum, he found a bright green line that did not correspond to the position of any known line of any of the known elements. Other strange lines were also discovered, and Young assumed they represented some new element and named it "corony".

What is the use of this "corony", only and all that there is some kind of spectral line. Until then, no, until the nature of the structure of the atom was described. It turned out that each atom consists of a heavy nucleus in the center, surrounded by one or more light electrons on the periphery. Every time an electron leaves an atom, the spectral lines produced by that atom change. Chemists could make out the spectrum of atoms that had lost two or three electrons, but the technique for removing a large number electrons and the study of the spectrum under these conditions was not yet available to them.

In 1941, Bengt Edlen managed to show that "coronium" is not a new element at all. Ordinary elements - iron, nickel and calcium leave exactly the same lines, if you take away a dozen electrons from them. So "coronium" was an ordinary element that lacked many electrons.

Such a large deficit of electrons could only be caused by exceptionally high temperatures, and Edlen suggested that the solar corona should be at a temperature of one or two million degrees. At first this was met with general disbelief, but in the end, when the hour of rocket technology came, it was found that the solar corona radiates X-rays, and this could only take place at the temperatures predicted by Edlen.

So, the corona is the outer atmosphere of the Sun, continuously fed by matter thrown out by solar flares. The corona is extremely radiant matter, rarefied so much that there are less than a billion particles in one cubic centimeter, and this is about one trillionth the density of the earth's atmosphere at sea level.

In fact, this is a real vacuum. The energy ejected from the surface of the Sun by its flares, magnetic fields, and huge sonic vibrations from the incessantly roaring convective currents is distributed among a relatively small number of particles. Although all the heat contained in the corona is small (given its fair volume), the amount of heat possessed by each of these few particles is quite high, and it is this “heat per particle” that is meant by the measured temperature.

Corona particles are individual atoms ejected outward from the solar surface, most or all of whose electrons have been taken away by high temperatures. Because the Sun is made up mostly of hydrogen, most of these particles are hydrogen nuclei, or protons. Hydrogen is followed in quantitative terms by helium nuclei. The number of all other heavier nuclei is quite negligible. And although some heavy nuclei cause the famous lines of coronium, they are present only in the form of traces.

Corona particles move away from the Sun in all directions. As they spread, the corona occupies more and more volume and becomes more rarefied. As a result, its light weakens more and more, until at some distance from the Sun it disappears completely.

However, the very fact that the corona weakens until it disappears completely for the observer's eyes does not mean that it does not continue to exist in the form of particles rushing into space. The American physicist Eugene Parker (b. 1927) in 1959 called these fast particles the solar wind.

The solar wind, expanding, reaches the nearest planets and passes even further. Rocket tests have shown that the solar wind is detectable beyond the orbit of Saturn and is likely to be detectable even beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto.

In other words, all the planets that revolve around the Sun move inside its widest atmosphere. However, this atmosphere is so rarefied that it does not affect the motion of the planets in any tangible way.

And yet the solar wind is not a thing so ghostly that it does not manifest itself in many ways. Particles of the solar wind are electrically charged, and these particles, captured by the Earth's magnetic field, form "Van Allen belts" that ignite the aurora, confuse compasses and electronic equipment. Solar flares amplify the solar wind for a moment and greatly increase the intensity of these effects for a while.

In the vicinity of the Earth, solar wind particles rush at a speed of 400-700 km / s, and their number in 1 cm 3 varies from 1 to 80. If these particles hit the earth's surface, they would have the most harmful effect on all living things, fortunately , we are protected by the Earth's magnetic field and its atmosphere.

The amount of matter lost by the Sun through the solar wind is 1 billion kg/s. By human standards it is awfully much, for the Sun it is a mere trifle. The Sun has been on the main sequence for about 5 billion years and will remain on it for another 5–6 billion years. If during all this time it has been losing and will continue to lose its mass with the wind at the present rate, then the total loss of the Sun over the entire period of its life as a main sequence star will be 1/5 of its mass.

Nevertheless, 1/5 of the mass of any solid star is not an average amount added to the total supply of matter drifting in the vast spaces between stars. This is just an example of how matter can move away from stars and join the total supply of interstellar gas.

Our Sun is not unusual in this sense. We have every reason to believe that every star that has not yet collapsed sends out a stellar wind.

Of course, we cannot study the stars in the same way as we study the Sun, but some generalizations can be made. There are, for example, small, cool red dwarfs that, at irregular intervals, suddenly show an increase in brightness, accompanied by a whitening of the light. This amplification lasts from several minutes to an hour and has such features that it can be mistaken for a flash on the surface of a small star.

These red dwarfs are therefore called flare stars.

A flare, less weak in magnitude than a solar flare, will acquire a much more noticeable effect on a small star. If a large enough flare can increase the Sun's radiance by 1%, then the same flare would be enough to amplify the light of a dim star by 250 times.

As a result, it may well turn out that red dwarfs send a stellar wind of a very impressive quality.

Some stars are likely to send out unusually strong stellar winds. Red giants, for example, have an exorbitantly stretched structure, the largest of which are 500 times larger than the Sun in diameter. Hence, their surface gravity is relatively small, as the large mass of the huge red giant is barely balanced by the unusually large distance from the center to the surface. In addition, red giants are approaching the end of their existence and will end with its collapse. Therefore, they are extremely turbulent.

It can be assumed from this that powerful vortices carry away stellar matter in spite of weak surface attraction.

The large red giant Betelgeuse is close enough to us that astronomers are able to collect some data about it. For example, Betelgeuse's stellar wind is believed to be a billion times stronger than the sun's. Even considering that Betelgeuse's mass is 16 times that of the Sun, this mass at this rate of depletion could melt completely in about a million years (if it doesn't collapse much sooner).

Apparently, we can assume that the solar wind of our star is not too far from the average intensity of all stellar winds in general. If we assume that there are 300 billion stars in our galaxy, then the total mass lost through the stellar wind will be 3 x 1020 kg/s.

This means that every 200 years, an amount of matter equal to the mass of the Sun leaves the stars in interstellar space. Assuming that our Galaxy is 15 billion years old and that the solar winds “blew” the same during this time, we get that the total mass of matter transferred from the stars into space is equal to the mass of 75 million stars, like our Sun, or approximately 1/ 3 masses of the galaxy.

But stellar winds originate from the surface layers of stars, and these layers are entirely (or almost entirely) composed of hydrogen and helium. Therefore, stellar winds entirely (or almost entirely) contain the same hydrogen and helium and do not introduce any heavy nuclei into the galactic mixture.

Heavy nuclei are formed in the center of the star and, being far from the stellar surface, remain motionless during the formation of the stellar wind.

When there are some traces of heavy nuclei in the upper layers of the stellar structure (as we have in the Sun), the stellar wind naturally includes these few nuclei. Heavy cores were not originally formed in the interiors of stars, but appeared there when the star had already formed. They arose from the action of some external source that we have to find.

EXIT THROUGH THE CATASTROPHE

If stellar winds are not the mechanism by which heavy nuclei are transported from the center of a star to outer space, then we turn to turbulent events that occurs when a star leaves the main sequence.

Here we immediately have to cross out most of the stars.

Approximately 75-80% of existing stars are much smaller than the Sun. They stay in the main sequence for anywhere from 20 to 200 billion years, depending on how small they are, which means that none of the small stars that exist today have ever left the main sequence. Even the oldest of them, formed at the dawn of the universe during the first billion years after the Big Bang, have not yet had time to use up their hydrogen fuel to the point where they should leave the main sequence.

Also, when a small star does leave the main sequence, it does so quietly. As far as we know, the smaller the star, the calmer it leaves this sequence. A small star (as in general, all stars) will expand into a red giant, but in this case, this expansion will lead to the formation of a small red giant. It will probably live much longer than others, larger and more noticeable, and eventually, collapsing, more or less quietly turn into a white dwarf, of course, not as dense as Sirius B.

Heavy elements formed in the depths of a small star (mainly carbon, nitrogen and oxygen), remaining in its core during its existence in the main sequence, will remain there after the transformation of the star into a white dwarf. Under no circumstances will they pass into the storage of interstellar gas in more than an insignificant amount. Except in very rare cases, heavy elements originating in small stars remain in these stars indefinitely.

Stars equal in mass to the Sun (10–20% of them) collapse and turn into white dwarfs, having stayed on the main sequence for only 5 to 15 billion years. Our Sun, which should have been in the main sequence for about 10 billion years, is still on it because it only formed 5 billion years ago.

Sun-like stars, older than our Sun, by now, perhaps, have long left the main sequence. The same thing happened with other similar stars that arose in the infancy of our Universe. Stars equal in mass to the Sun form larger red giants than small stars, and these red giants, having reached the point of becoming a white dwarf, collapse more violently than these stars. The energy of the collapse blows away the upper veils of the star and carries them into space, forming a planetary nebula of the type described earlier.

The expanding charge of gas formed during the collapse of a sun-shaped star can contain from 10 to 20% of its original mass. However, this matter is carried away from the outer regions of the star, and even when such stars are on the verge of collapse, these regions are, in essence, nothing more than a mixture of hydrogen and helium.

Even when, as a result of the turbulence of a star standing at the point of collapse, heavy nuclei from its interior are brought to the surface and ejected into space as part of a gas stream, it is still a tiny, barely noticeable part of those heavy nuclei that exist in interstellar gas clouds.

But since we have stopped on how white dwarfs are formed, the question is appropriate: what happens in those special occasions when a white dwarf does not mean the end, but serves as a factor in the distribution of matter in space?

Earlier in this book, we talked about white dwarfs as part of a close binary system capable of accumulating matter at the expense of a companion star approaching the stage of a red giant. From time to time, a part of this matter on the surface of a white dwarf is covered by a nuclear reaction, and the huge energy released, throwing fusion products into space with force, makes it flare up with a new brightness.

But the material being built up by the white dwarf is mostly hydrogen and helium from the outer layers of the expanding red giant. The fusion reaction turns hydrogen into helium, and it is the helium cloud that flies into space during the explosion.

This means that in this last case, if any heavy nuclei came from the companion star or were formed in the process of synthesis, then their number is so negligible that they cannot explain the many heavy nuclei that are scattered in interstellar clouds.

What are we left with?

The only possible source of heavy nuclei is a supernova.

A Type 1 supernova, as I explained earlier, occurs on the same soil as ordinary novae: a white dwarf receives matter from a nearby companion about to become a red giant. The difference is that here the white dwarf is at the Chandrasekhar mass limit, so the added mass eventually pushes it beyond that limit. The white dwarf is doomed to collapse. At the same time, a powerful nuclear reaction occurs in it and it explodes.

Its entire structure, equal in mass to 1.4 solar masses, shatters into dust and turns into a cloud of expanding gas.

For some time we observe it as a supernova, but this radiation, very strong at the first moment, gradually disappears. All that remains is a cloud of gas that expands for millions of years until it merges with the general background of interstellar gas.

When a white dwarf explodes, huge amounts of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and neon (of all the heavy nuclei of the most common elements) are scattered into space. During the explosion itself, a further nuclear reaction takes place, resulting in the formation of small quantities of nuclei even heavier than neon. Of course, only a very few white dwarfs are massive enough and close enough to a large companion star to become a type 1 supernova, but over the 14 billion years of the life of the Galaxy, there were so many such explosions that they could more than explain a significant number of heavy nuclei, available in interstellar gas.

The remaining heavy nuclei exist in the interstellar medium as a result of the evolution of type 2 supernovae. It's about, as was said, about massive stars, which are 10, 20 and even 60 times heavier than the Sun.

At the stage of the existence of stars in the form of red giants, nuclear fusion occurs in their cores, which continues until iron nuclei begin to form in large numbers there. The formation of iron is a dead end beyond which nuclear fusion can no longer exist as an energy producing device. Therefore, the star is undergoing a collapse.

Although the stellar core contains successively deeper layers of heavy nuclei, down to iron nuclei, the outer regions of the star still have impressive amounts of intact hydrogen, never exposed to high temperatures and pressures that could force it to enter into a nuclear reaction.

The collapse of a giant star is so rapid that it experiences a sharp, catastrophic increase in both temperature and pressure. All the hydrogen (and helium, too), which has hitherto been undisturbed, is now reacting, and all at once. The result is a colossal explosion that we observe from Earth as a type 2 supernova.

The energy released in this case can and does go to nuclear reactions capable of forming nuclei heavier than those of iron. Such formation of nuclei requires an influx of energy, but in the midst of the fury of a supernova, energy is not to be occupied ... This is how nuclei are formed up to uranium and heavier. There is enough energy for the formation of radioactive (i.e., unstable) nuclei, which will decay over time.

In fact, all the heavy nuclei that exist in the universe were formed as a result of type 2 supernova explosions.

Of course, such massive stars, from which a type 2 supernova is sure to turn out, are not common. Only one star in a million, or maybe even less, has enough mass for this. However, this is not so rare case as it seems at first glance.

Thus, in our Galaxy there are tens of thousands of stars that are potential type 2 supernovae.

Insofar as giant stars can remain in the main sequence for at most a few million years, we have the right to wonder: why didn’t they all explode and disappear a long time ago? The fact is that new stars are being formed all the time and some of them are stars with very large mass. The type 2 supernovae we now observe are the eruptions of stars that formed only a few million years ago. Type 2 supernovae, which will occur in the distant future, will be explosions of large stars that do not yet exist today. Maybe there will be supernovae and more grandiose ones. Until relatively recently, astronomers were sure that stars with a mass of 60 times more than the sun probably do not exist at all. It was believed that such stars in their cores would develop so much heat that they would instantly explode, despite the huge gravity.

In other words, they would never even be able to form.

However, in the 1980s it was realized that some aspects of Einstein's general theory of relativity were not taken into account in these arguments. After these aspects were taken into account in astronomical calculations, it turned out that stars 100 solar diameters and 2000 times the mass of the Sun could still be stable. Moreover, several astronomical observations have confirmed that such supermassive stars do exist.

Naturally, supermassive stars eventually collapsed and exploded as supernovae, which produced much more energy and over a much longer period of time than ordinary supernovae. These superexplosions should apparently be considered as type 3 supernovae.

Around the same time, the Soviet astronomer V.P. Utrobin decided to retrospectively study astronomical records of past years in order to find a supernova there, which by its nature would be a type 3 supernova. He suggested that a supernova discovered in 1901 in the galaxy of the constellation Perseus, that's exactly the case. Instead of peaking in days or weeks, this supernova took a whole year to reach its maximum brightness, after which it faded very slowly, remaining visible for nine subsequent years.

The total energy emitted by it was 10 times greater than the energy of an ordinary supernova. Even in our time, astronomers thought this was fantastic, and they were clearly puzzled.

Such superheavy stars are extremely rare, but the number of heavy nuclei they produce is a thousand times or more greater than the number of nuclei produced by ordinary supernovae. This means that the contribution of heavy nuclei to interstellar gas clouds, made by superheavy stars, is very large. In our Galaxy during its existence, apparently, there were 300 million explosions of various supernovae (and a similar number, adjusted for the difference in size, in each other), and this is quite enough to explain the reserves of heavy nuclei in interstellar gas , in the outer layers of ordinary stars (and in addition to our planetary system - in any planets).

Now you see that virtually the entire Earth and all of us are almost entirely composed of atoms formed in the interiors of stars (other than our Sun) and scattered into space during early supernova explosions. We cannot point to individual atoms and say on which star they were born and when exactly they were thrown into space, but we know that they were born on some distant star and came to us as a result of an explosion in the distant past.

We, and our world, thus, not only originated from stars, but from exploding stars. We came from supernovae!

Notes:

The innermost part of the radiation belt closest to the Earth, the "Van Allen belt", is formed by protons and electrons arising from the decay of neutrons emerging from the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere - Note. ed.

In order to understand the process of the birth and development of ideas about thermonuclear fusion on the Sun, it is necessary to know the history of human ideas about understanding this process. There are many unsolvable theoretical and technological problems in creating a controlled thermonuclear reactor in which the process of controlling thermonuclear fusion takes place. Many scientists, and even more so officials from science, are not familiar with the history of this issue.

It is precisely the ignorance of the history of understanding and representation of thermonuclear fusion on the Sun by humanity that led to the wrong actions of the creators of thermonuclear reactors. This is proved by the sixty-year failure of work on the creation of a controlled thermonuclear reactor, the waste of huge amounts of money by many developed countries. The most important and irrefutable proof is that a controlled thermonuclear reactor has not been created for 60 years. Moreover, well-known scientific authorities in the media promise the creation of a controlled thermonuclear reactor (UTNR) in 30...40 years.

2. Occam's Razor

Occam's Razor is a methodological principle named after the English Franciscan friar, nominalist philosopher William. In a simplified form, it reads: "One should not multiply the existing without the need" (or "One should not attract new entities without the most extreme necessity"). This principle forms the basis of methodological reductionism, also called the principle of thrift, or the law of economy. Sometimes the principle is expressed in the words: "That which can be explained in terms of less should not be expressed in terms of more."

AT modern science“Occam's Razor” is usually understood as a more general principle, stating that if there are several logically consistent definitions or explanations of a phenomenon, then the simplest of them should be considered correct.

The content of the principle can be simplified as follows: one does not need to introduce complex laws to explain a phenomenon if this phenomenon can be explained by simple laws. Now this principle is a powerful tool of scientific critical thought. Occam himself formulated this principle as a confirmation of the existence of God. They, in his opinion, can definitely explain everything without introducing anything new.

Reformulated in the language of information theory, the principle of "Occam's Razor" states that the most accurate message is the message of the minimum length.

Albert Einstein reformulated the principle of "Occam's Razor" as follows: "Everything should be simplified as long as possible, but no more."

3. About the beginning of understanding and representation by mankind of thermonuclear fusion on the Sun

All the inhabitants of the Earth for a long time understood the fact that the Sun warms the Earth, but the sources of solar energy remained incomprehensible to everyone. In 1848, Robert Mayer put forward the meteorite hypothesis, according to which the Sun is heated by the bombardment of meteorites. However, with such a necessary number of meteorites, the Earth would also be very hot; in addition, the terrestrial geological strata would consist mainly of meteorites; finally, the mass of the Sun had to increase, and this would affect the movement of the planets.

Therefore, in the second half of the 19th century, many researchers considered the most plausible theory developed by Helmholtz (1853) and Lord Kelvin, who suggested that the Sun heats up due to slow gravitational contraction (“Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism”). Calculations based on this mechanism estimated the maximum age of the Sun at 20 million years, and the time after which the Sun will go out - no more than 15 million years. However, this hypothesis contradicted the geological data on the age of rocks, which indicated much larger numbers. For example, Charles Darwin noted that the erosion of the Vendian deposits lasted at least 300 million years. Nevertheless, the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia considers the gravitational model the only acceptable one.

Only in the 20th century was the “correct” solution to this problem found. Initially, Rutherford put forward the hypothesis that the source of the internal energy of the Sun is radioactive decay. In 1920, Arthur Eddington suggested that the pressure and temperature in the bowels of the Sun are so high that thermonuclear reactions can take place there, in which hydrogen nuclei (protons) merge into a helium-4 nucleus. Since the mass of the latter is less than the sum of the masses of four free protons, then part of the mass in this reaction, according to Einstein's formula E = mc 2 is converted into energy. The fact that hydrogen predominates in the composition of the Sun was confirmed in 1925 by Cecilly Payne.

The theory of nuclear fusion was developed in the 1930s by astrophysicists Chandrasekhar and Hans Bethe. Bethe calculated in detail the two main thermonuclear reactions that are the sources of the Sun's energy. Finally, in 1957, Margaret Burbridge's work "Synthesis of Elements in Stars" appeared, in which it was shown, it was suggested that most of the elements in the Universe arose as a result of nucleosynthesis going on in stars.

4. Space exploration of the Sun

The first works of Eddington as an astronomer are connected with the study of the movements of stars and the structure of stellar systems. But, his main merit is that he created the theory internal structure stars. Deep insight into the physical essence of phenomena and mastery of the methods of the most complex mathematical calculations allowed Eddington to obtain a number of fundamental results in such areas of astrophysics as the internal structure of stars, the state of interstellar matter, the motion and distribution of stars in the Galaxy.

Eddington calculated the diameters of some red giant stars, determined the density of the dwarf satellite of the star Sirius - it turned out to be unusually high. Eddington's work on determining the density of a star served as an impetus for the development of the physics of superdense (degenerate) gas. Eddington was a good interpreter of Einstein's general theory of relativity. He made the first experimental test of one of the effects predicted by this theory: the deflection of light rays in the gravitational field of a massive star. He managed to do this during a total eclipse of the Sun in 1919. Together with other scientists, Eddington laid the foundations of modern knowledge about the structure of stars.

5. Thermonuclear fusion - combustion!?

What is, visually, thermonuclear fusion? Basically, it's combustion. But it is clear that this is combustion of a very high power per unit volume of space. And it is clear that this is not an oxidation process. Here, in the combustion process, other elements are involved, which also burn, but under special physical conditions.

Consider combustion.

Chemical combustion is a complex physical and chemical process of converting the components of a combustible mixture into combustion products with the release of thermal radiation, light and radiant energy.

Chemical combustion is divided into several types of combustion.

Subsonic combustion (deflagration), unlike explosion and detonation, proceeds at low speeds and is not associated with the formation of a shock wave. Subsonic combustion includes normal laminar and turbulent flame propagation, and supersonic combustion refers to detonation.

Combustion is divided into thermal and chain. Thermal combustion is based on chemical reaction, capable of proceeding with progressive self-acceleration due to the accumulation of released heat. Chain combustion occurs in some gas-phase reactions at low pressures.

Thermal self-acceleration conditions can be provided for all reactions with sufficiently large thermal effects and activation energies.

Combustion can start spontaneously as a result of self-ignition or be initiated by ignition. Under fixed external conditions, continuous combustion can proceed in a stationary mode, when the main characteristics of the process - the reaction rate, heat release rate, temperature and product composition - do not change over time, or in a periodic mode, when these characteristics fluctuate around their average values. Due to the strong nonlinear dependence of the reaction rate on temperature, combustion is highly sensitive to external conditions. The same property of combustion determines the existence of several stationary regimes under the same conditions (hysteresis effect).

There is volumetric combustion, it is well known and often used in everyday life.

diffusion combustion. It is characterized by separate supply of fuel and oxidizer to the combustion zone. Mixing of components takes place in the combustion zone. Example: combustion of hydrogen and oxygen in a rocket engine.

Combustion of a premixed medium. As the name implies, combustion occurs in a mixture in which both fuel and oxidizer are present. Example: combustion in the cylinder of an internal combustion engine of a gasoline-air mixture after the initialization of the process with a spark plug.

Flameless combustion. In contrast to conventional combustion, when zones of oxidizing flame and reducing flame are observed, it is possible to create conditions for flameless combustion. An example is the catalytic oxidation of organic substances on the surface of a suitable catalyst, for example, the oxidation of ethanol on platinum black.

Smoldering. A type of combustion in which no flame is formed, and the combustion zone slowly spreads through the material. Smoldering is usually seen with porous or fibrous materials with a high air content or impregnated with oxidizing agents.

autogenous combustion. Self-sustaining combustion. The term is used in waste incineration technologies. The possibility of autogenous (self-sustaining) combustion of waste is determined by the maximum content of ballasting components: moisture and ash.

Flame is a region of space in which combustion occurs in the gas phase, accompanied by visible and (or) infrared radiation.

The usual flame that we observe when burning a candle, the flame of a lighter or a match, is a stream of hot gases, stretched vertically due to the force of gravity of the Earth (hot gases tend to rise up).

6. Modern physical and chemical ideas about the Sun

Main characteristics:

The composition of the photosphere:

The Sun is the central and only star of our solar system, around which other objects of this system revolve: planets and their satellites, dwarf planets and their satellites, asteroids, meteoroids, comets and space dust. The mass of the Sun (theoretically) is 99.8% of the total mass of the entire solar system. Solar radiation supports life on Earth (photons are necessary for the initial stages of the photosynthesis process), determines the climate.

According to the spectral classification, the Sun belongs to the type G2V (“yellow dwarf”). The surface temperature of the Sun reaches 6000 K, so the Sun shines with almost white light, but due to stronger scattering and absorption of the short-wavelength part of the spectrum by the Earth's atmosphere, the direct light of the Sun near the surface of our planet acquires a certain yellow tint.

The solar spectrum contains lines of ionized and neutral metals, as well as ionized hydrogen. There are approximately 100 million G2 stars in our Milky Way galaxy. At the same time, 85% of the stars in our galaxy are stars that are less bright than the Sun (most of them are red dwarfs at the end of their evolution cycle). Like all main-sequence stars, the Sun generates energy through nuclear fusion.

Solar radiation is the main source of energy on Earth. Its power is characterized by the solar constant - the amount of energy passing through an area of ​​unit area perpendicular to sunbeams. At a distance of one astronomical unit (that is, in the orbit of the Earth), this constant is approximately 1370 W/m 2 .

Passing through the Earth's atmosphere, solar radiation loses approximately 370 W / m 2 in energy, and only 1000 W / m 2 reaches the earth's surface (in clear weather and when the Sun is at its zenith). This energy can be used in various natural and artificial processes. So, plants with the help of photosynthesis process it into a chemical form (oxygen and organic compounds). Direct solar heating or energy conversion with photovoltaic cells can be used to generate electricity (solar power plants) or perform other useful work. In the distant past, the energy stored in oil and other fossil fuels was also obtained through photosynthesis.

The sun is a magnetically active star. It has a strong magnetic field that changes over time and changes direction approximately every 11 years, during solar maximum. Variations in the magnetic field of the Sun cause a variety of effects, the totality of which is called solar activity and includes such phenomena as sunspots, solar flares, solar wind variations, etc., and on Earth it causes auroras in high and middle latitudes and geomagnetic storms, which adversely affect the operation of communication facilities, means of transmitting electricity, and also negatively affects living organisms, causing headaches and poor health in people (in people who are sensitive to magnetic storms). The Sun is a young star of the third generation (populations I) with a high content of metals, that is, it was formed from the remains of stars of the first and second generations (populations III and II, respectively).

The current age of the Sun (more precisely, the time of its existence on the main sequence), estimated using computer models stellar evolution is approximately 4.57 billion years.

Life cycle of the sun. The Sun is believed to have formed approximately 4.59 billion years ago when a cloud of molecular hydrogen rapidly compressed under the action of gravity forces to form a star of the first type of stellar population of the T Taurus type in our region of the Galaxy.

A star of the same mass as the Sun should exist on the main sequence for a total of about 10 billion years. Thus, now the Sun is approximately in the middle of its life cycle. At the present stage, thermonuclear reactions of the conversion of hydrogen into helium are taking place in the solar core. Every second in the core of the Sun, about 4 million tons of matter is converted into radiant energy, resulting in the generation of solar radiation and a stream of solar neutrinos.

7. Theoretical ideas of mankind about the internal and external structure of the Sun

At the center of the Sun is the solar core. The photosphere is the visible surface of the Sun, which is the main source of radiation. The sun is surrounded by a solar corona, which has a very high temperature, but it is extremely rarefied, therefore it is visible to the naked eye only during periods of total solar eclipse.

The central part of the Sun with a radius of about 150,000 kilometers, in which thermonuclear reactions take place, is called the solar core. The density of matter in the core is approximately 150,000 kg/m 3 (150 times higher than the density of water and ≈6.6 times higher than the density of the heaviest metal on Earth - osmium), and the temperature in the center of the core is more than 14 million degrees. A theoretical analysis of the data, carried out by the SOHO mission, showed that in the core the speed of rotation of the Sun around its axis is much higher than on the surface. A proton-proton thermonuclear reaction takes place in the nucleus, as a result of which helium-4 is formed from four protons. At the same time, 4.26 million tons of matter are converted into energy every second, but this value is negligible compared to the mass of the Sun - 2·10 27 tons.

Above the core, at distances of about 0.2 ... 0.7 of the Sun's radius from its center, there is a radiative transfer zone, in which there are no macroscopic movements, energy is transferred using the "re-radiation" of photons.

convective zone of the sun. Closer to the surface of the Sun, vortex mixing of the plasma occurs, and the transfer of energy to the surface occurs mainly by the motions of the matter itself. This method of energy transfer is called convection, and the subsurface layer of the Sun, approximately 200,000 km thick, where it occurs, is called the convective zone. According to modern data, its role in the physics of solar processes is exceptionally great, since it is in it that various motions of solar matter and magnetic fields originate.

Atmosphere of the Sun The photosphere (a layer that emits light) reaches a thickness of ≈320 km and forms the visible surface of the Sun. The main part of the optical (visible) radiation of the Sun comes from the photosphere, while the radiation from deeper layers no longer reaches it. The temperature in the photosphere reaches an average of 5800 K. Here, the average density of the gas is less than 1/1000 of the density of terrestrial air, and the temperature decreases to 4800 K as it approaches the outer edge of the photosphere. Under such conditions, hydrogen remains almost completely in a neutral state. The photosphere forms the visible surface of the Sun, from which the dimensions of the Sun, the distance from the surface of the Sun, etc. are determined. The chromosphere is the outer shell of the Sun, about 10,000 km thick, surrounding the photosphere. The origin of the name of this part of the solar atmosphere is associated with its reddish color, caused by the fact that its visible spectrum is dominated by the red H-alpha emission line of hydrogen. The upper boundary of the chromosphere does not have a pronounced smooth surface; hot ejections, called spicules, constantly occur from it (because of this, in late XIX century, the Italian astronomer Secchi, observing the chromosphere through a telescope, compared it with burning prairies). The temperature of the chromosphere increases with altitude from 4,000 to 15,000 degrees.

The density of the chromosphere is low, so its brightness is insufficient to observe it under normal conditions. But during a total solar eclipse, when the Moon covers the bright photosphere, the chromosphere located above it becomes visible and glows red. It can also be observed at any time using special narrow-band optical filters.

The corona is the last outer shell of the sun. Despite its very high temperature, from 600,000 to 2,000,000 degrees, it is visible to the naked eye only during a total solar eclipse, since the density of matter in the corona is low, and therefore its brightness is also low. The unusually intense heating of this layer is apparently caused by the magnetic effect and the action of shock waves. The shape of the corona changes depending on the phase of the solar activity cycle: during periods of maximum activity, it has a rounded shape, and at minimum, it is elongated along the solar equator. Since the temperature of the corona is very high, it radiates intensely in the ultraviolet and X-ray ranges. These radiations do not pass through the earth's atmosphere, but recently it has become possible to study them with the help of spacecraft. Radiation in different regions of the corona occurs unevenly. There are hot active and quiet regions, as well as coronal holes with a relatively low temperature of 600,000 degrees, from which magnetic field lines emerge into space. This ("open") magnetic configuration allows particles to leave the Sun unhindered, so the solar wind is emitted "primarily" from coronal holes.

From the outside solar corona the solar wind flows out - a stream of ionized particles (mainly protons, electrons and α-particles), having a speed of 300 ... 1200 km / s and propagating, with a gradual decrease in its density, to the boundaries of the heliosphere.

Since the solar plasma has a sufficiently high electrical conductivity, electric currents and, as a result, magnetic fields can arise in it.

8. Theoretical problems of thermonuclear fusion on the Sun

The problem of solar neutrinos. Nuclear reactions occurring in the core of the Sun lead to the formation a large number electronic neutrinos. At the same time, measurements of the neutrino flux on Earth, which have been constantly made since the late 1960s, showed that the number of solar electron neutrinos recorded there is approximately two to three times less than predicted by the standard solar model describing processes in the Sun. This discrepancy between experiment and theory has been called the "solar neutrino problem" and has been one of the mysteries of solar physics for more than 30 years. The situation was complicated by the fact that neutrinos interact extremely weakly with matter, and the creation of a neutrino detector that can accurately measure the neutrino flux even of such a power as coming from the Sun is a rather difficult scientific task.

Two main ways of solving the problem of solar neutrinos have been proposed. First, it was possible to modify the model of the Sun in such a way as to reduce the assumed temperature in its core and, consequently, the flux of neutrinos emitted by the Sun. Secondly, it could be assumed that some of the electron neutrinos emitted by the core of the Sun, when moving towards the Earth, turn into neutrinos of other generations (muon and tau neutrinos) that are not detected by conventional detectors. Today, scientists are inclined to believe that the second way is most likely the correct one. In order for the transition of one type of neutrino to another - the so-called "neutrino oscillations" - to take place, the neutrino must have a non-zero mass. It has now been established that this seems to be true. In 2001, all three types of solar neutrinos were directly detected at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory and their total flux was shown to be consistent with the Standard Solar Model. In this case, only about a third of the neutrinos reaching the Earth turn out to be electronic. This number is consistent with the theory that predicts the transition of electron neutrinos into neutrinos of another generation both in vacuum (actually “neutrino oscillations”) and in solar matter (“the Mikheev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect”). Thus, at present, the problem of solar neutrinos seems to have been solved.

Corona heating problem. Above the visible surface of the Sun (photosphere), which has a temperature of about 6,000 K, is the solar corona with a temperature of more than 1,000,000 K. It can be shown that the direct flow of heat from the photosphere is not enough to lead to such a high temperature of the corona.

It is assumed that the energy for heating the corona is supplied by turbulent motions of the subphotospheric convective zone. In this case, two mechanisms have been proposed for energy transfer to the corona. Firstly, this is wave heating - sound and magnetohydrodynamic waves generated in the turbulent convective zone propagate into the corona and dissipate there, while their energy is converted into thermal energy of the coronal plasma. An alternative mechanism is magnetic heating, in which the magnetic energy continuously generated by photospheric motions is released by reconnecting the magnetic field in the form of large solar flares or a large number of small flares.

At present, it is not clear what type of waves provides an efficient mechanism for heating the corona. It can be shown that all waves, except magnetohydrodynamic Alfven ones, are scattered or reflected before they reach the corona, while the dissipation of Alfvén waves in the corona is difficult. Therefore, modern researchers have focused on the mechanism of heating with the help of solar flares. One of the possible candidates for sources of coronal heating is continuously occurring small-scale flares, although final clarity on this issue has not yet been achieved.

P.S. After reading about "Theoretical Problems of Thermonuclear Fusion in the Sun" it is necessary to remember about "Occam's Razor". Here, far-fetched illogical theoretical explanations are clearly used in explanations of theoretical problems.

9. Types of thermonuclear fuel. thermonuclear fuel

Controlled thermonuclear fusion (CTF) is the synthesis of heavier atomic nuclei from lighter ones in order to obtain energy, which, unlike explosive thermonuclear fusion (used in thermonuclear weapons), is controlled. Controlled thermonuclear fusion differs from traditional nuclear energy in that the latter uses a fission reaction, during which lighter nuclei are obtained from heavy nuclei. The main nuclear reactions planned to be used for controlled fusion will use deuterium (2 H) and tritium (3 H), and in the longer term helium-3 (3 He) and boron-11 (11 B)

Types of reactions. The fusion reaction is as follows: two or more atomic nuclei are taken and, with the application of a certain force, they approach so much that the forces acting at such distances prevail over the Coulomb repulsion forces between equally charged nuclei, as a result of which a new nucleus is formed. It will have a slightly smaller mass than the sum of the masses of the original nuclei, and the difference becomes the energy that is released during the reaction. The amount of energy released is described by the well-known formula E = mc 2. Lighter atomic nuclei are easier to bring to the right distance, so hydrogen - the most abundant element in the universe - is the best fuel for a fusion reaction.

It has been established that a mixture of two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, requires the least amount of energy for the fusion reaction compared to the energy released during the reaction. However, although a mixture of deuterium and tritium (D-T) is the subject of most fusion research, it is by no means the only potential fuel. Other mixtures may be easier to manufacture; their reaction can be better controlled, or more importantly, produce fewer neutrons. Of particular interest are the so-called "neutronless" reactions, since the successful industrial use of such fuel will mean the absence of long-term radioactive contamination of materials and reactor design, which, in turn, could positively affect public opinion and the overall cost of operating the reactor, significantly reducing the cost of decommissioning it. The problem remains that the fusion reaction using alternative fuels is much more difficult to maintain, so the D-T reaction is considered only a necessary first step.

Scheme of the deuterium-tritium reaction. Controlled thermonuclear fusion can use various types of thermonuclear reactions depending on the type of fuel used.

The most easily implemented reaction is deuterium + tritium:

2 H + 3 H = 4 He + n with an energy output of 17.6 MeV.

Such a reaction is most easily implemented from the point of view of modern technologies, gives a significant yield of energy, and fuel components are cheap. Its disadvantage is the release of unwanted neutron radiation.

Two nuclei: deuterium and tritium fuse to form a helium nucleus (alpha particle) and a high-energy neutron.

The reaction - deuterium + helium-3 is much more difficult, at the limit of what is possible, to carry out the reaction deuterium + helium-3:

2 H + 3 He = 4 He + p with an energy output of 18.3 MeV.

The conditions for achieving it are much more complicated. Helium-3 is also a rare and extremely expensive isotope. It is currently not produced on an industrial scale.

Reaction between deuterium nuclei (D-D, monopropellant).

Reactions between deuterium nuclei are also possible, they are a little more difficult than reactions involving helium-3.

These reactions slowly proceed in parallel with the reaction of deuterium + helium-3, and the tritium and helium-3 formed during them are very likely to immediately react with deuterium.

Other types of reactions. Several other types of reactions are also possible. The choice of fuel depends on many factors - its availability and low cost, energy yield, ease of achieving the conditions required for the fusion reaction (primarily temperature), the necessary design characteristics of the reactor, and so on.

"Neutronless" reactions. The most promising so-called. "neutronless" reactions, since the neutron flux generated by thermonuclear fusion (for example, in the deuterium-tritium reaction) carries away a significant part of the power and generates induced radioactivity in the reactor design. The deuterium-helium-3 reaction is promising, also due to the lack of a neutron yield.

10. Classical ideas about the conditions of implementation. thermonuclear fusion and controlled thermonuclear reactors

TOKAMAK (TOROIDAL CAMERA WITH MAGNETIC COILS) is a toroidal facility for magnetic plasma confinement. The plasma is held not by the walls of the chamber, which are not able to withstand its temperature, but by a specially created magnetic field. A feature of TOKAMAK is the use electric current, flowing through the plasma to create the poloidal field necessary for plasma equilibrium.

CTS is possible with the simultaneous fulfillment of two criteria:

• the plasma temperature must be greater than 100,000,000 K;
• compliance with the Lawson criterion: n · t> 5 10 19 cm -3 s (for the D-T reaction),
  where n is the high-temperature plasma density, t is the plasma confinement time in the system.

It is believed, theoretically, that it is the value of these two criteria that mainly determines the rate of a particular thermonuclear reaction.

At present, controlled thermonuclear fusion has not yet been carried out on an industrial scale. Although developed countries have built, in general, several dozen controlled thermonuclear reactors, they cannot provide controlled thermonuclear fusion. The construction of the international research reactor ITER is in its initial stages.

Two principal schemes for the implementation of controlled thermonuclear fusion are considered.

Quasi-stationary systems. The plasma is heated and held by a magnetic field at a relatively low pressure and high temperature. For this, reactors in the form of TOKAMAKS, stellarators, mirror traps and torsatrons are used, which differ in the configuration of the magnetic field. The ITER reactor has a TOKAMAK configuration.

impulse systems. In such systems, CTS is carried out by short-term heating of small targets containing deuterium and tritium by ultra-high-power laser or ion pulses. Such irradiation causes a sequence of thermonuclear microexplosions.

Studies of the first type of thermonuclear reactors are much more developed than those of the second. In nuclear physics, in the study of thermonuclear fusion, a magnetic trap is used to hold plasma in a certain volume. The magnetic trap is designed to keep the plasma from contact with the elements of a thermonuclear reactor, i.e. used primarily as a heat insulator. The confinement principle is based on the interaction of charged particles with a magnetic field, namely, on the rotation of charged particles around magnetic field lines. Unfortunately, the magnetized plasma is very unstable and tends to leave the magnetic field. Therefore, to create an effective magnetic trap, the most powerful electromagnets are used, which consume a huge amount of energy.

It is possible to reduce the size of a thermonuclear reactor if three methods of creating a thermonuclear reaction are used simultaneously in it.

inertial synthesis. Irradiate tiny capsules of deuterium-tritium fuel with a laser with a power of 500 trillion (5 10 14) watts. This giant, very short-term 10–8 s laser pulse causes the fuel capsules to explode, resulting in the birth of a mini-star for a fraction of a second. But a thermonuclear reaction cannot be achieved on it.

Simultaneously use Z-machine with TOKAMAK. A Z-machine works differently than a laser. It passes through a web of the thinnest wires surrounding the fuel capsule, a charge with a power of half a trillion watts 5 10 11 watts.

The first generation reactors will most likely run on a mixture of deuterium and tritium. The neutrons that appear during the reaction will be absorbed by the reactor shield, and the heat released will be used to heat the coolant in the heat exchanger, and this energy, in turn, will be used to rotate the generator.

There are, in theory, alternative types of fuel that are devoid of these disadvantages. But their use is hindered by a fundamental physical limitation. To get enough energy from the fusion reaction, it is necessary to keep a sufficiently dense plasma at the fusion temperature (10 8 K) for a certain time.

This fundamental aspect of synthesis is described by the product of the plasma density n for the time of maintenance of the heated plasma τ, which is required to reach the equilibrium point. Work nτ depends on the type of fuel and is a function of the plasma temperature. Of all types of fuel, the deuterium-tritium mixture requires the lowest value nτ by at least an order of magnitude, and the lowest reaction temperature by at least 5 times. Thus, D-T reaction is a necessary first step, but the use of other fuels remains an important research goal.

11. Fusion reaction as an industrial source of electricity

Fusion energy is considered by many researchers as a "natural" source of energy in the long term. Proponents of the commercial use of fusion reactors for power generation make the following arguments in their favor:

• practically inexhaustible reserves of fuel (hydrogen);
• fuel can be extracted from sea water on any coast of the world, which makes it impossible for one or a group of countries to monopolize fuel;
• the impossibility of an uncontrolled synthesis reaction;
• absence of combustion products;
• there is no need to use materials that can be used to produce nuclear weapons, thus eliminating cases of sabotage and terrorism;
• compared with nuclear reactors, produces a small amount of radioactive waste with a short half-life.

It is estimated that a thimble filled with deuterium produces the energy equivalent of 20 tons of coal. A medium-sized lake is able to provide any country with energy for hundreds of years. However, it should be noted that existing research reactors are designed to achieve a direct deuterium-tritium (DT) reaction, whose fuel cycle requires the use of lithium to produce tritium, while claims of inexhaustible energy refer to the use of a deuterium-deuterium (DD) reaction in the second generation of reactors.

Just like the fission reaction, the fusion reaction produces no atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming. This is a significant advantage, since the use of fossil fuels for electricity generation has the consequence that, for example, 29 kg of CO 2 are produced in the USA (one of the main gases that can be considered a cause of global warming) per US resident per day.

12. Already have doubts

The countries of the European Community spend about 200 million euros annually on research, and it is predicted that it will take several more decades before the industrial use of nuclear fusion becomes possible. Proponents of alternative energy sources believe that it would be more appropriate to direct these funds to the introduction of renewable energy sources.

Unfortunately, despite the widespread optimism (common since the 1950s when the first research began), significant obstacles between today's understanding of nuclear fusion processes, technological possibilities and the practical use of nuclear fusion have not yet been overcome, it is unclear even how much can be economically profitable production of electricity using thermonuclear fusion. Although progress in research is constant, researchers are constantly faced with new challenges. For example, the challenge is to develop a material that can withstand neutron bombardment, which is estimated to be 100 times more intense than conventional nuclear reactors.

13. The classic idea of ​​the upcoming stages in the creation of a controlled thermonuclear reactor

There are the following stages in research.

Equilibrium or "pass" mode: when the total energy that is released during the fusion process is equal to the total energy spent on starting and supporting the reaction. This ratio is marked with the symbol Q. The equilibrium of the reaction was demonstrated at the JET in the UK in 1997. Having spent 52 MW of electricity to heat it up, the scientists obtained a power 0.2 MW higher than that spent. (You need to double-check this data!)

Blazing Plasma: an intermediate stage in which the reaction will be supported mainly by alpha particles that are produced during the reaction, and not by external heating.

Q≈ 5. So far, the intermediate stage has not been reached.

Ignition: a stable response that sustains itself. Must be achieved at high values Q. So far not achieved.

The next step in research should be ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. At this reactor, it is planned to study the behavior of high-temperature plasma (flaming plasma with Q≈ 30) and structural materials for an industrial reactor.

The final phase of the research will be DEMO: a prototype industrial reactor that will achieve ignition and demonstrate the practical suitability of new materials. The most optimistic forecasts for the completion of the DEMO phase: 30 years. Taking into account the approximate time for the construction and commissioning of an industrial reactor, we are separated by ≈40 years from the industrial use of thermonuclear energy.

14. All this needs to be considered

Dozens, and maybe hundreds of experimental thermonuclear reactors of various sizes have been built in the world. Scientists come to work, turn on the reactor, the reaction takes place quickly, it seems, they turn it off, and they sit and think. What is the reason? What to do next? And so for decades, to no avail.

So, the history of human understanding of thermonuclear fusion in the Sun and the history of mankind's achievements in creating a controlled thermonuclear reactor were outlined above.

A long way has been passed and a lot has been done to achieve the final goal. But, unfortunately, the result is negative. A controlled thermonuclear reactor has not been created. Another 30 ... 40 years and the promises of scientists will be fulfilled. Will they? 60 years no result. Why should it happen in 30...40 years, and not in three years?

There is another idea of ​​thermonuclear fusion in the Sun. It is logical, simple and really leads to a positive result. This discovery by V.F. Vlasov. Thanks to this discovery, even TOKAMAKS can start operating in the near future.

15. A new look at the nature of thermonuclear fusion on the Sun and the invention "Method of controlled thermonuclear fusion and controlled thermonuclear reactor for controlled thermonuclear fusion"

From the author. This discovery and invention is almost 20 years old. For a long time I doubted that I had found a new way to carry out thermonuclear fusion and for its implementation a new thermonuclear reactor. I have researched and studied hundreds of papers in the field of thermonuclear fusion. Time and processed information convinced me that I was on the right track.

At first glance, the invention is very simple and does not at all look like an experimental thermonuclear reactor of the TOKAMAK type. In modern ideas of authorities from the science of TOKAMAK, this is the only correct decision and is not subject to discussion. 60 years of the idea of ​​a thermonuclear reactor. But a positive result - a working thermonuclear reactor with controlled thermonuclear fusion TOKAMAK - is promised only in 30...40 years. Probably, if there is no real positive result for 60 years, then the chosen method of technical solution of the idea - the creation of a controlled thermonuclear reactor - is, to put it mildly, incorrect, or not realistic enough. Let's try to show that there is another solution to this idea based on the discovery of thermonuclear fusion in the Sun, and it differs from the generally accepted ideas.

Opening. main idea discovery is very simple and logical, and lies in the fact that thermonuclear reactions occur in the region of the solar corona. It is here that the necessary physical conditions exist for the implementation of a thermonuclear reaction. From the solar corona, where the plasma temperature is approximately 1,500,000 K, the surface of the Sun heats up to 6,000 K, from here the fuel mixture evaporates into the solar corona from the boiling surface of the Sun. Temperatures of 6,000 K are enough for the fuel mixture in the form of evaporating vapors to overcome the gravitational force of the sun. This protects the surface of the Sun from overheating and maintains the temperature of its surface.

Near the combustion zone - the solar corona, there are physical conditions under which the sizes of atoms should change and, at the same time, the Coulomb forces should significantly decrease. Upon contact, the atoms of the fuel mixture merge and synthesize new elements with a large release of heat. This combustion zone creates the solar corona, from which energy in the form of radiation and matter enters space. The fusion of deuterium and tritium is helped by the magnetic field of the rotating Sun, where they are mixed and accelerated. Also from the thermonuclear reaction zone in the solar corona appear and move with great energy, towards the evaporating fuel, fast electrically charged particles, as well as photons - electromagnetic field quanta, all this creates the necessary physical conditions for thermonuclear fusion.

In the classical concepts of physicists, thermonuclear fusion, for some reason, is not attributed to the combustion process (this does not mean the oxidative process). Authorities from physics came up with the idea that thermonuclear fusion on the Sun repeats the volcanic process on a planet, for example, Earth. Hence all the reasoning, the method of similarity is used. There is no evidence that the core of the planet Earth has a molten liquid state. Even geophysics cannot reach such depths. The existence of volcanoes cannot be taken as proof of the liquid core of the Earth. In the bowels of the Earth, especially at shallow depths, there are physical processes that are still unknown to authoritative physicists. In physics, there is not a single proof that thermonuclear fusion occurs in the depths of any star. And in a thermonuclear bomb, thermonuclear fusion does not at all repeat the model in the bowels of the Sun.

Upon careful visual study, the Sun looks like a spherical volumetric burner and very much resembles burning on a large surface of the earth, where there is a gap between the surface boundary and the burning zone (a prototype of the solar corona) through which thermal radiation is transmitted to the earth's surface, which evaporates, for example, spilled fuel and these prepared vapors enter the combustion zone.

It is clear that on the surface of the Sun, such a process occurs under other, other physical conditions. Similar physical conditions, quite close in terms of parameters, were included in the development of the design of a controlled thermonuclear reactor, Short description and the schematic diagram of which is set out in the patent application set forth below.

Abstract of the patent application No. 2005123095/06(026016).

"Method of controlled thermonuclear fusion and controlled thermonuclear reactor for the implementation of controlled thermonuclear fusion".

I explain the method and principle of operation of the declared controlled thermonuclear reactor for the implementation of controlled thermonuclear fusion.

Rice. one. Simplified schematic diagram of UTYAR

On fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the UTYAR. Fuel mixture, in a mass ratio of 1:10, compressed to 3000 kg / cm 2 and heated to 3000 ° C, in the zone 1 mixes and enters through the critical section of the nozzle into the expansion zone 2 . In the zone 3 fuel mixture is ignited.

The temperature of the ignition spark can be any temperature necessary to start the thermal process - from 109...108 K and below, it depends on the necessary physical conditions created.

In the high temperature zone 4 the combustion process takes place. Combustion products transfer heat in the form of radiation and convection to the heat exchange system 5 and towards the incoming fuel mixture. Device 6 in the active part of the reactor from the critical section of the nozzle to the end of the combustion zone helps to change the magnitude of the Coulomb forces and increases the effective cross section of the fuel mixture nuclei (creates the necessary physical conditions).

The diagram shows that the reactor is similar to a gas burner. But a thermonuclear reactor should be like that, and of course, the physical parameters will differ by hundreds of times from, for example, the physical parameters of a gas burner.

Repetition of the physical conditions of thermonuclear fusion on the Sun in terrestrial conditions - this is the essence of the invention.

Any heat generating device that uses combustion must create the following conditions - cycles: fuel preparation, mixing, supply to the working zone (combustion zone), ignition, combustion (chemical or nuclear transformation), heat removal from hot gases in the form of radiation and convection, and removal of combustion products. In case of hazardous waste - their disposal. All of this is covered in the pending patent.

The main argument of physicists about the fulfillment of the Lawsen criterion is fulfilled - during ignition by an electric spark or a laser beam, as well as fast electric charged particles reflected from the combustion zone to evaporating fuel, as well as photons - electromagnetic field quanta with high-density energies, a temperature of 109 .. .108 K for a certain minimum area of ​​the fuel, in addition, the density of the fuel will be 10 14 cm -3 . Isn't this a way and method to fulfill the Lawsen criterion. But all these physical parameters can change under the influence of external factors on some other physical parameters. This is still know-how.

Let us consider the reasons for the impossibility of implementing thermonuclear fusion in known thermonuclear reactors.

16. Disadvantages and problems of generally accepted ideas in physics about thermonuclear reaction on the Sun

1. Known. The temperature of the visible surface of the Sun - the photosphere - is 5800 K. The density of gas in the photosphere is thousands of times less than the density of air near the Earth's surface. It is generally accepted that inside the Sun temperature, density and pressure increase with depth, reaching in the center, respectively, 16 million K (some say 100 million K), 160 g/cm 3 and 3.5 10 11 bar. Under the influence of high temperature in the core of the Sun, hydrogen turns into helium with the release of a large amount of heat. So, it is believed that the temperature inside the Sun is from 16 to 100 million degrees, on the surface 5800 degrees, and in the solar corona from 1 to 2 million degrees? Why such nonsense? No one can explain this in a clear and understandable way. The well-known generally accepted explanations are flawed and do not give a clear and sufficient idea of ​​the reasons for the violation of the laws of thermodynamics on the Sun.

2. A thermonuclear bomb and a thermonuclear reactor operate on different technological principles, i.e. similarly similar. It is impossible to create a thermonuclear reactor in the likeness of a thermonuclear bomb, which is missed in the development of modern experimental thermonuclear reactors.

3. In 1920, the authoritative physicist Eddington cautiously suggested the nature of a thermonuclear reaction in the Sun, that the pressure and temperature in the bowels of the Sun are so high that thermonuclear reactions can take place there, in which hydrogen nuclei (protons) merge into a helium-4 nucleus. This is currently the generally accepted view. But since then, there is no evidence that thermonuclear reactions occur in the core of the Sun at 16 million K (some physicists believe 100 million K), a density of 160 g / cm3 and a pressure of 3.5 x 1011 bar, there are only theoretical assumptions . Thermonuclear reactions in the solar corona are evident. It is easy to detect and measure.

4. The problem of solar neutrinos. Nuclear reactions occurring in the core of the Sun lead to the formation of a large number of electron neutrinos. The formation, transformations and number of solar neutrinos, according to the old ideas, are not explained clearly and several decades are enough. There are no such theoretical difficulties in the new concepts of thermonuclear fusion on the Sun.

5. Corona heating problem. Above the visible surface of the Sun (photosphere), which has a temperature of about 6,000 K, is the solar corona with a temperature of more than 1,500,000 K. It can be shown that the direct flow of heat from the photosphere is not enough to lead to such a high temperature of the corona. A new understanding of thermonuclear fusion in the Sun explains the nature of such a temperature of the solar corona. This is where thermonuclear reactions take place.

6. Physicists forget that TOKAMAKS are mainly needed to contain high-temperature plasma and nothing more. The existing and being created TOKAMAKS do not provide for the creation of the necessary, special, physical conditions for conducting thermonuclear fusion. For some reason no one understands this. Everyone stubbornly believes that deuterium and tritium should burn well at temperatures of many millions. Why would suddenly? A nuclear target just quickly explodes, not burns. Look closely at how nuclear combustion occurs in TOKAMAK. Such nuclear explosion can only hold a strong magnetic field of a very large reactor (it is easy to calculate), but then the efficiency. such a reactor would be unacceptable for technical applications. In the pending patent, the problem of confining fusion plasma is easily solved.

Explanations of scientists about the processes that occur in the bowels of the Sun are insufficient for understanding thermonuclear fusion in depth. No one has considered the processes of fuel preparation, the processes of heat and mass transfer, at depth, in very difficult critical conditions, well enough. For example, how, under what conditions, is plasma formed at a depth in which thermonuclear fusion occurs? How she behaves, etc. After all, TOKAMAKS are technically arranged in this way.

So, a new idea of ​​thermonuclear fusion solves all existing technical and theoretical problems in this region.

P.S. It is difficult to offer simple truths to people who for decades believed in the opinions (assumptions) of scientific authorities. To understand what the new discovery is about, it is enough to independently review what has been a dogma for many years. If a new proposition about the nature of a physical effect raises doubts about the truth of the old assumptions, prove the truth to yourself first. This is what every true scientist should do. The discovery of thermonuclear fusion in the solar corona is proved primarily visually. Thermonuclear combustion occurs not in the bowels of the Sun, but on its surface. This is a special fire. In many photographs and images of the Sun, you can see how the combustion process is going on, how the process of plasma formation is going on.

1. Controlled thermonuclear fusion. Wikipedia.

2. Velikhov E.P., Mirnov S.V. Controlled thermonuclear fusion is entering the finish line. Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Thermonuclear Research. Russian Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", 2006.

3. Llewellyn-Smith K. On the way to thermo nuclear power. Materials of the lecture given on May 17, 2009 at FIAN.

4. Encyclopedia of the Sun. Tesis, 2006.

5. Sun. Astronet.

6. The sun and the life of the Earth. Radio communication and radio waves.

7. Sun and Earth. Uniform fluctuations.

8. Sun. solar system. General astronomy. Project "Astrogalaxy".

9. Journey from the center of the Sun. Popular Mechanics, 2008.

10. Sun. Physical encyclopedia.

11. Astronomy Picture of the Day.

12. Combustion. Wikipedia.

"Science and Technology"

Wariness in American society towards nuclear energy based on nuclear fission has led to an increase in interest in hydrogen fusion (thermonuclear reaction). This technology has been proposed as an alternative way to use the properties of the atom to generate electricity. This is a great idea in theory. Hydrogen fusion converts matter into energy more efficiently than nuclear fission, and this process is not accompanied by the formation of radioactive waste. However, a workable thermonuclear reactor has yet to be created.

Fusion in the sun

Physicists believe that the Sun converts hydrogen into helium through a nuclear fusion reaction. The term "synthesis" means "combining". Hydrogen fusion requires highest temperatures. The powerful gravity created by the huge mass of the Sun constantly keeps its core in a compressed state. This compression provides the core with a temperature high enough for the occurrence of thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen.

Solar hydrogen fusion is a multi-step process. First, two hydrogen nuclei (two protons) are strongly compressed, emitting a positron, also known as an antielectron. A positron has the same mass as an electron, but carries a positive rather than a negative unit charge. In addition to the positron, when hydrogen atoms are compressed, a neutrino is released - a particle that resembles an electron, but does not have an electric charge and is capable of penetrating through matter to a large extent (In other words, neutrinos (low-energy neutrinos) interact extremely weakly with matter. The mean free path of some types of neutrinos in water is about a hundred light years.It is also known that every second, without visible consequences, about 10 neutrinos emitted by the Sun pass through the body of every person on Earth.).

The synthesis of two protons is accompanied by the loss of a unit positive charge. As a result, one of the protons becomes a neutron. This is how the nucleus of deuterium (denoted 2H or D) is obtained - a heavy isotope of hydrogen, consisting of one proton and one neutron.

Deuterium is also known as heavy hydrogen. A deuterium nucleus combines with another proton to form a helium-3 (He-3) nucleus, consisting of two protons and one neutron. This emits a beam of gamma radiation. Next, two helium-3 nuclei, formed as a result of two independent repetitions of the process described above, combine to form a helium-4 (He-4) nucleus, consisting of two protons and two neutrons. This helium isotope is used to fill lighter-than-air balloons. At the final stage, two protons are emitted, which can provoke further development of the fusion reaction.

In the process of "solar fusion", the total mass of the created matter slightly exceeds the total mass of the original ingredients. The "missing part" is converted into energy, according to Einstein's famous formula:

where E is the energy in joules, m is the "missing mass" in kilograms, and c is the speed of light, which is (in vacuum) 299,792,458 m/s. The sun produces an enormous amount of energy in this way, since hydrogen nuclei are converted into helium nuclei non-stop and in huge quantities. There is enough matter in the Sun for the process of hydrogen fusion to continue for millions of millennia. Over time, the supply of hydrogen will come to an end, but this will not happen in our lifetime.