he translate of the interview: Ariadne: Well, we are here in a very special program with a very close and respected friend of mine, Dr Luca Sorriso-Valvo. Luca: Hello everyone, hello, how are you? Ariadne: well, we are going to start by sharing the screen because this presentation is to ...
he translate of the interview:
Ariadne: Well, we are here in a very special program with a very close and respected friend of mine, Dr Luca Sorriso-Valvo.
Luca: Hello everyone, hello, how are you?
Ariadne: well, we are going to start by sharing the screen because this presentation is to talk about Luca as a professional in plasma physics and what better way to do it than to talk about him in what he has been doing lately, he has done a very delicate job around the sun because he is dedicated to that, studying the sun and as I told you in the previous video, it is for that reason that I gave him the character of Valvo in my novel. Well, let’s start:
with «Laws of scale for the transfer of energy in the turbulence of space plasma» this work is carried out together with the physicist Raffaele Marino and well we are going to interview Luca so that he can talk about this What do the scaling laws mean for energy transfer in plasma turbulence?
Luca: This question is not easy to answer or try and excuse me for my bad Spanish, I haven’t been in a Spanish-speaking country for a long time and my Spanish has gotten old but I’m going to try Maybe I will speak to you in English and you help me translating…
Ariadne: Of course Luca, don’t worry that my English is also not very good we did the program with Ugur and it turned out well, we have to accept that Asgardians are multilingual and at the same time not all of us are polyglots, although you are.
Luca: I know, I was lucky to work for a few years in Barcelona and other years in Quito, Ecuador, so yes, I learned a little Spanish and I was teaching in Spanish. What you mentioned in the introduction leads me to explain that the sun is a fairly broad topic with many particular issues and one of those involves me in the study of what could be called the atmosphere of the Sun.
I am not referring to the part of the Sun as the star, but the sphere that surrounds it, the plasma ball, that is to say, what comes from there and reaches the earth and does so throughout the entire space of the solar system, is what It’s called the solar wind.
This is my more precise topic, let’s say, how that wind is very fast, a point that moves from there and there are particles that are emitted from the Sun all the time and go with the speed and speed similar to 500 km per second, it’s very fast, enormously fast.
As you can imagine when there is a fast wind, it will be turbulent, it will generate eddies and all those things, but there is an interesting detail that this wind is not made of atoms like the one in the atmosphere, but by ionized particles, that is, where electrons, nuclei or protons are disconnected, they are not in an atom but each one can travel with its own independence, that is called a plasma of particles similar to a gas but the ionized particles, that is to say, shit, are not neutral like normal gas.
Why are they more important? Because when working with a gas that has an electric charge, that will interact not only with aerodynamic forces, but also with electromagnetic forces, they will interact with electric fields and magnetic fields, and commenting on the sun, those charged particles that move these magnetic fields are going to be pretty weird and complicated and complex things that are the framework.
Ariadne: For us, everything that has to do with the sun was a speculation from the past, even the alchemists adored it, but today there is a light on the road and there is a very interesting phrase in the article we are talking about that says:
«Along with innovative technologies, new theoretical developments and methodologies for data analysis have played a crucial role in advancing our understanding of how energy is transferred across scales in space.»
This is what the authors say in the article and then tell us, Luca, the data from the probes in this research work that helped this article so much:
Luca: This is like talking about a collection of results from the last 15 to 20 years, let’s say, in which I have already participated for the most part and they are all kinds of works that are based on the analysis of simulations and data thrown into the computers and that are verified based on equations that artificial analysis fields seek to study and understand what happens but most use data from space probes, they are satellites that have been launched into space in different areas, some close to the earth, others closer to the Sun, that is, orbiting close to the Sun and others in very far space even close to Jupiter, Mars and other planets.
So throughout space in different regions of space, there are different satellites and we have used the measurements that these satellites take, which are the speed of the wind, the magnetic field, and the density of the particles; all these types of data to proceed with our studies in particular, let’s say there are theoretical laws that can be drawn from the equations that describe the system and these theoretical laws must be validated with experimental data because otherwise, they remain as theories, since these data are not validated in the observations it is useless, that is, it is not that they are useless, but they are not verified until they are compared with the real data.
A lot of work has consisted of using precisely those data measured from satellites that have been taken with satellites, since the satellites send them to earth with daily transmissions, we take the data, interpret it, analyze it and look for some relationships between them.
So that’s how we predict the equations and by doing this we’re looking for model validations and theories to describe how turbulence works in this solar wind, that’s pretty much how it’s put to use.
Ariadne: It is a very good, very good support, there are keywords within this study: space plasmas, turbulence, energy transfer, magnetohydrodynamics, scale laws, solar wind, heliosphere, Sun and waves.
I think that plasma, turbulence, and energy transfer have not been clearly explained by Luca anymore, and magnetohydrodynamics that word is quite unpredictable for me but I imagine that it has to do with magnetism and hydro if he related it to water, I don’t understand, I better I leave Luca to explain it to us:
Luca: Yes, it is a good question, in this case, hydro represents water itself, the concept refers to fluids, so in this case, as I told you, it is a wind that could also be fluid like the sea, the ocean, something like that. , but that it is charged, then it is also interacting with electromagnetic fields, so this science combines electromagnetism, and hydrodynamics, that is, the movement of fluids, that includes gases, it is not only liquids like water but also gases like the atmosphere, for example then joining the studies of electromagnetism, Maxwell’s equations; With hydrodynamic studies, magnetohydrodynamics was born, which is the theoretical framework in which we move in the solar wind.
Ariadne: This is very important, now the heliosphere, how much does it influence the study of the heliosphere? You already told us about the scales of values that have been understood thanks to the waves of the solar wind and the heliosphere. What is their representative role here?
Luca: Heliosphere is a word that has been introduced precisely to describe the entire region that is against the Sun and in which particles of the Sun that have been emitted and are now travelling, in particular, are moving, it is as if it were a ball of plasma Around the Sun, let’s say the extension of the Sun where all the planets are, reaches beyond the orbit of Pluto, this space is quite large, that is, it occupies the entire solar system.
Outside of this, there is interstellar space, that is, everything between one star and another, so this work in general and that of my community is a reason for my study. We try to study all the processes that occur in the heliosphere, this very general region, then there are other regions within the heliosphere that we can talk about, for example, the magnetosphere, which is the one between the planets, how is this plasma ball that is close of each of them and is the word used to indicate the solar system from the point of view of the gas that surrounds them and not of the planets.
Ariadne: When you talk about waves, Luca reminds me of the moment when the Sun drags the entire solar system along with its magnetohydrodynamics and takes it for a walk around the galaxy, I don’t know if it’s related, what can you tell us about this:
Luca: I believe that the two things are separated from each other and that is precisely what is important, it is a very interesting question because there are waves everywhere, there are waves that are born for this, due to the fact that the entire solar system precisely moves along the galaxy, around the center of the galaxy has an orbit around the nucleus of our galaxy and in this movement in the interstellar gas or the galactic gas, waves are being produced because of this movement of the Sun, that is one thing, in our case the The waves that we are not dealing with are of another type, they are waves that are emitted by the sun and the solar wind emits waves similar to those we have in the terrestrial atmosphere, similar to those of the sea, for example, and they are the ones that are emitted the Sun and they propagate everywhere, also impacting the earth and these normally when they reach the edge of the atmosphere they stay, they thin out until they become thin, very small filaments, then it no longer matters. Even a lot if they invade the interstellar wind but if within the heliosphere they are important and produce these effects of turbulence and also impact the earth and produce effects of what is called space weather.
So there are two different types of waves: those in the centre of the galaxy produced by the movement of the Sun and those that are within the solar system or the heliosphere due to other types of smaller, faster small-scale movements that occur within the Sun.
Ariadne: Wonderful explanation, thank you, we know that all of you who are Italian speak Spanish, speak English and are studying Swedish, now tell us what relationship leads Luca from Italy to Sweden, of course, we know that scientists travel all over the world but tell us specifically about Sweden.
In general, I like changing the place where I live. So far I have moved several times. I said that in the last 15 years, I have made more than 20 city or country trips with everything that entails, that’s when I travelled to France, I was also in Spain, in the United States, in Ecuador, as I said before, I was in England and various parts of Italy and then Sweden, where I like it better now, I feel very well, it is very calm, I like nature and I like the calm and here there are a lot of both, so I’m trying to stay here, now I’ve been living here for two years with my wife who also came with me and well I’m going to continue working here for another 3 years, but all of this while always keeping my job in Italy too, that is, I work a little here a little there in Italy I like to work my area is very good for me but now it’s my time to stay in Sweden.
My work is space physics related to your subject of plasmas, what I do and what we have talked about so far is precisely space physics, that is, it is a part of space physics, and the intersection between solar physics and space physics has a lot in common, normally it is closer to the earth but it also reaches the sun, the solar wind and the physics of the solar wind in Italy plasma technology deal more with nuclear fusion, that is, the plasma of the sun is the same material that is wanted to be made for fusion processes for the production of energy, by the way, there was some recent news about the success of the Americans who were able to do a good experiment and well, in this institute in Italy they work a lot on this, so it is not just space or solar physics but mainly nuclear fusion physics is very important for other applications you can imagine.
Ariadne: Lastly, Luca, I would like you to give us some advice for physicists or for boys who are interested in studying physics. What advice would you give them that is required to put all the concentration that this type of activity requires?
Luca: That is a very good and difficult question because many people see physics a bit like the monster of the subjects when they go to college or school physics is difficult because it takes a lot of mathematics and many say: «I don’t understand nothing”, well if that is true, it is difficult, it is not easy at all, there is a lot of work that has to be done to understand and speak the language that is needed to study physics, but if it is achieved, nothing is impossible, then It can be difficult but it only takes a little work, study especially to learn mathematics, which is the language used in physics; that on the one hand, on the other hand, I believe that it is essential for a person to have a very curious attitude towards discovery in general, to understand how things work because that is the meaning of physics studies, to understand how things work. things in nature.
In principle, the word physics means natural in ancient Greek, so physics is the study of nature, that is, the very basic laws that describe nature, well, when one is curious and has enough strength to spend their time in books and do your exercises then there is no problem, you can do it later well there is also a problem of talent or predisposition that one needs to develop the ability there are those who already have it, but it can also be developed so I would say that there is no type of impediment to trying to do this career of physics studies.
For example, there are only good things, it’s great but if you’re not very curious and don’t care how things work, then maybe it’s not a good choice; but if you are curious, it is worth learning a lot of things and it is the best thing that can be done and also the incredible satisfaction of understanding things as they work with their most basic laws, then it would be very good if more people study physics.
Ariadne: This moment with you, Luca, is very enriching. I feel very happy to have this channel to talk to all of you. It is wonderful to freeze my image, but if you listen to me, I will now show you the page of the article where such an important study tells us about plasma.
If you go to that page you can find it and discover and delve into that magic that physics has, I am very grateful to Dr Luca Sorriso-Valvo for his participation, remember this program is Creative Letters and well I hope to have many Asgardian members telling us about their activity in The World because for me it is wonderful to know that each one of us has a lot to contribute. Thank you, Luca.
Luca: Thanks to you Ariadne it has been a pleasant greeting, Chao Chao. Everything is perfect I loved it if what you said had not been difficult. I was worried about being too technical and not being understood.
Ariadne: Clear, thank you, Luca, thank you very much
Luca: Thanks to you then bye bye