Anthony Peratt is an electrical engineer. He was a graduate student of Hannes Alfven, a former Scientific Advisor to the United States Department of Energy, and a member of the Associate Laboratory Directorate of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Peratt developed computer simulation of galaxy formation, based on research concerning Birkeland currents using (at the time) the fastest supercomputer available. Peratt was investigating laboratory scale Birkeland currents and used experimentally justified scaling laws to see what would happen at galactic scales. The book "The Big Bang Never Happened" (1991) by E. J. Lerner gives an account of this. Peratt discovered the dynamic effects that occur in intense Birkeland currents, named Peratt Instabilities. These arc discharges occur in plasma torches, z-pinched plasma filaments, and high energy density electrical discharges. Evidence exists that the instability can also be found on astrophysical scales.

See also: plasma cosmology

Publications

• Peratt, A., J. Green, and D. Nielsen, "Evolution of Colliding Plasmas". Physical Review Letters, 44, pp. 1767-1770, 1980.

External links

• Peratt, Anthony, "The Plasma Universe (http://public.lanl.gov/alp/plasma/universe.html)".
• "Electrical Plasma (http://www.electric-cosmos.org/electricplasma.htm)". (Electric-Cosmos (http://www.electric-cosmos.org/).org)