Ball lightning model

Plasma with space charge

In vortex rings like the smoke ring, gas or liquid circulates around a circular axis. Rotation near the axis is like a rigid body. Rapid circulation creates hollow vortex cores by cavitation. Pressure gradients provide the necessary centripetal forces.

Plasma vortices have similar circulation patterns around magnetic field lines. Lorentz forces move electrons towards, and ions away from the vortex axis, or conversely in reversed fields. Coulomb forces resist separation of electrons from ions in vortex circulation.

Vortex with boson core

The Convectron model treats vortex plasma in ball lightning as a charged superfluid. Lightning discharges form fireballs when electrons condense in the ground state for bosons. This collective state becomes relativistic at binding energy mc² = 511 keV. Fusion reactions of deuterium nuclei already start at a few percent of this energy.

Negative charge in vortex cores circulates at the quantum limit for electrons. Positive ions in a co-rotating mantle screens their electric field. By large mass ratios, circulating ions carry keV energies at electron energies in eV. Near the relativistic border modest fluctuations suffice for fusion reactions of light nuclei.

Electric self-confinement

Charged eigenstates confine bosonic vortex plasma much like gravity confines Sun and stars. Microscopic boson cores confine charge by surface tension. Fireball evolution at stable charge storage proceeds without shrinking or fading.

Collectively, bosonic cores in a vortex lattice reverse Coulomb interaction as photonic wire grids demonstrate in reflection of microwaves. The octahedral lattice shown in the image in the column on the right fits twelve tapered vortex tubes into a coherent worm gear. Like a tornado, their contraction near the centre accelerates ions to high circulation velocities. 

Fusion in moist air

Big Bang scenario’s spread deuterium early and evenly throughout our universe. Its fusion energy briefly halts contraction by gravity when deuterium flashes announce new-born stars. Accordingly fusion regimes in moist air ignite deuterium first. Two reaction channels spread various ionising particles over ranges of several hundred metres, or metres, or centimetres, depending on particle charge and energy.

        
An average ball lightning radiates away circulation energy received from its parent lightning, and decays. But vortex circulation above a threshold speed ignites fusion of light nuclei, turning the ball into a nuclear energy source. Fast particles emitted from surface layers reveal themselves in coloured haloes as Madame Curie discovered for radium. One well-documented ball lightning event reports double haloes with widths that evoke the reaction channels of deuterium fusion.