Actually, I don't do it full-time for various reasons. The topic is being researched by laboratories in "richer" countries. On the one hand, I don't want to brag about things I don't really know. On the other hand, it may be worth presenting this point of view on electrical discharges.
The phenomenon was discovered in the USA by Keneth Radford Shouders. Shoulders studied the impact of sparks on various materials, using an electron microscope and other devices. He described the history of his research in the book "EV - A Tale of Discovery". Shoulders discovered that during an electric discharge, an "active precursor" - an emission center with a very high concentration of electric charge - runs through the space between the cathode and the anode. It can be said that it "sows electrons" and ionizes the matter around it. This "precursor" leaves behind a "plasma tunnel" through which the spark current will then flow.
Research has shown that such a "precursor" consists of electrons. This would indicate that electrons in certain special cases are able to combine with each other to form an meta-stable cluster. Generally, when modeling space charge, it is assumed that electrons repel each other. Perhaps the Coulomb force does not work perfectly at very small distances.
In Russia, Vladimir Sapogin argues that the stability of an electron cluster can be explained by appropriately treating Poisson's equation. Poisson's equation can be reduced to a form resembling Bernoulli's equation. Stable solutions of such forms of matter exist. Such "electron plasmoids" are examples analogous to other natural phenomena, such as nebulae in space. While some attempt to extend such analogies even to nuclear physics, there may be some truth in this. Mr. Sapogin worked for a time at FREELTECH A.G. (Luxembourg), a company attempting to develop new-generation vacuum capacitors using electron clusters.
The phenomenon of explosive emission centers in discharges was also discovered later in the USSR (independently of Shoulders) - it was discovered by Gennady Mesyats. He called the particles ectons. Mesyats wrote publications on high impulse powers. A special institute of electronophysics was established to study the phenomenon (subordinated to the Russian Academy of Sciences). Russian research group studies on a more explainable course of the phenomena. During a spark discharge on the cathode, a "micro-explosion" occurs. Instead, micro-fragments of the cathode material are released. The electrode is melted (it is boiling in some points). Liquid drops are ejected. From these fragments, ions, electrons, plasma are emitted under discharge conditions (EEE - Explosive Electron Emission). Perhaps thanks to better devices, it was possible to detect ions, which Shoulders had not noticed.
Phenomena related to spark discharges have also been studied in Ukraine. In the 1990s, the Proton 21 electrodynamics laboratory was established. It studied discharges to induce a forced transition of a system to its lowest energy state. The goal was to burn radioactive waste (forced nuclear transformations using a high-power spark discharge). From what I see online, there are already publications in reputable scientific journals and patents in various countries. This may indicate the considerable potential of such research.
I do not recommend searching "shadow libraries" (copyright violation, etc.). All in all, the topic is difficult and probably not very well described.
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