Self-similarity of plasma networking in a broad range of length scales: From laboratory to cosmic plasmas

A newly developed method of high-resolution processing, called a method of multilevel dynamical contrasting, is applied to analyze numerous data from laboratory electric discharges and observations of cosmic plasmas in a broad spectroscopic range from rf to soft x-ray images. A high degree of self-similarity of plasma structuring is found in a very broad range of length scales, from individual filaments in laboratory discharges to the structures in the universe, which resemble electric currents networking in laboratory plasmas. The results presented illustrate recently suggested [Kukushkin and Rantsev-Kartinov, Laser Part. Beams 16, 445 (1998)] generic features of networking in plasmas: (1) long-living (nonfluctuative) filamentation of electric current; (2) formation of a fractal structure made of single filament and complicated interaction of these "fractal'' filaments; (3) formation of a percolating network that includes, in particular, formation of the "stockings'' woven by the individual filaments. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(99)60801-2].