Lightning as a natural accelerator of relativistic particles and a source of synchrotron radiation

Abstract

A physical model of the formation of a vortex current in a plasma channel of lightning discharges due to the anomalous Hall effect caused by relativistic spin-orbit interaction phenomenon is proposed. The existence of fast electromagnetic surface plasmon waves propagating along the lightning discharge channel at a speed close to the speed of light in vacuum is shown. The spin properties of electrons become important at relativistic velocities, so the spin-orbit coupling arises as an effective magnetic force acting on the spin of an electron, leading to the formation of a spin-induced vortex current in the absence of an external magnetic field. This makes it possible to consider the lightning discharge channel as a charged particle accelerator that generates microwave, X-ray, gamma-ray and RF emissions by a current pulse moving along a helical trajectory via synchrotron and cyclotron radiation mechanisms. The proposed theoretical model of the formation of a spin-induced vortex current in the lightning plasma channel is consistent with observations of lightning and spark discharges.