Jean-Pierre Petit
Encyclopedia
Fluid mechanics
Fluid mechanics is the study of fluids and the forces on them. Fluid mechanics can be divided into fluid statics, the study of fluids at rest; fluid kinematics, the study of fluids in motion; and fluid dynamics, the study of the effect of forces on fluid motion...
, kinetic theory of gases, plasma physics applied in magnetohydrodynamics
Magnetohydrodynamics
Magnetohydrodynamics is an academic discipline which studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such fluids include plasmas, liquid metals, and salt water or electrolytes...
power generation and propulsion as well as topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
and astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
applied in cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
. He is a pioneer in magnetohydrodynamics
Magnetohydrodynamics
Magnetohydrodynamics is an academic discipline which studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such fluids include plasmas, liquid metals, and salt water or electrolytes...
and has worked out the principle and techniques of parietal MHD converter
MHD generator
The MHD generator or dynamo transforms thermal energy or kinetic energy directly into electricity. MHD generators are different from traditional electric generators in that they can operate at high temperatures without moving parts...
. In cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
, he worked on the bi-gravity theory.
Besides his adventure in the UFO topic as well as his assertions about the existence of Ummo, Petit has succeeded in pursuing a scientific career within the CNRS.
Now retired, he is involved with UFO-Science which he co-founded and LAMBDA (Laboratory for Applications of MHD in Bitemperature Discharges to Aerodynamics) which he founded.
He claims a true scientific study of the UFO phenomenon
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
would improve our scientific knowledge and help mankind.
Professional work
Jean-Pierre Petit obtained his Engineer's degreeEngineer's degree
An engineer's degree is an advanced academic degree in engineering that is conferred in Europe, some countries of Latin America, and a few institutions in the United States....
in 1961 at the French aeronautical engineering school ENSAE
École Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace
The École Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace , founded in 1909, is one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles in France. It was the world's first dedicated aerospace engineering school and is considered to be one of the best in Europe in that field...
(Supaero). In the 1960s he worked for several months in a French rocket engine test facility
Rocket engine test facility
A rocket engine test facility is a location where rocket engines may be tested on the ground, under controlled conditions. A ground test program is generally required before the engine is certified for flight...
as a test engineer
Test Engineer
A hardware test engineer is a professional who determines how to create a process that would test a particular product in manufacturing, quality assurance or related area like RMA department, in order to assure that the product meets applicable specifications...
in the development of the first nuclear
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
intercontinental missiles
Intercontinental ballistic missile
An intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery...
SLBM
Submarine-launched ballistic missile
A submarine-launched ballistic missile is a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead that can be launched from submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles each of which carries a warhead and allows a single launched missile to...
. Because he felt uncomfortable within the military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
R&D
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
, he preferred to integrate civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
. In 1965 he was hired by the Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
Institute of Fluid Mechanics (IMFM), a French laboratory affiliated with CNRS and the French atomic agency CEA
Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique
The Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives or CEA, is a French “public establishment related to industrial and commercial activities” whose mission is to develop all applications of nuclear power, both civilian and military...
, as a research engineer where he made his first studies in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). In 1972 he fully incorporated the CNRS after his EngD
Engineering Doctorate
The Engineering Doctorate scheme is a British postgraduate education programme promoted by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council . The programme is undertaken over four years. Students conduct PhD-equivalent research and undertake taught business and technical courses whilst...
thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
defense. In 1974 he officially stopped experimental research
Applied science
Applied science is the application of scientific knowledge transferred into a physical environment. Examples include testing a theoretical model through the use of formal science or solving a practical problem through the use of natural science....
in MHD and started working at the Marseille Observatory
Marseille Observatory
Marseille Observatory or Observatoire de Marseille is an astronomical observatory run by the University of Provence. It is located near Marseille, France. In its first incarnation, it was the discovery site of a group of galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet or Hickson 92, discovered by Édouard...
where he reconverted himself in fundamental research
Fundamental science
Fundamental science is science that describes the most basic objects, forces, relations between them and laws governing them, such that all other phenomena may be in principle derived from them following the logic of scientific reductionism. Biology, chemistry and physics are fundamental sciences;...
as an astrophysicist. However, he personally carried on his experimental research on MHD propulsion until 1987. Convalescent after many months of hospitalization following an industrial injury, he became between 1977 and 1983 codirector of the Calculation Center at the French University of Provence
University of Provence
The University of Provence Aix-Marseille I is a public university mostly located in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. It is one of the three Universities of Aix-Marseille and is part of the Academy of Aix and Marseille.-Overview:...
where he developed with students some CAD software
Computer-aided design
Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
marketed in 1978. He retired from CNRS in April 2003 but keeps working. In 2007, he founded a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
called UFO-Science to concretize some research ideas he could not experiment on while working due to lack of allocated funds at the time.
Professional work overview in MHD
His career in the field of MHD is well-known: 1st method of eletrothermal instability control and 1st usable MHD generator with non-equilibrium ionized gas (1967); kinetic theory of non-equilibrium plasmas (1972); MHD aerodynes with ionization control (1975); Shock wave cancellation by MHD force field around a cylindrical profile imbedded in a liquid flow (1976); 2nd method of electrothermal instability control by magnetic pressure gradient in an MHD accelerator (1981); Thesis director about shock wave annihilation around a flat wing in a hot supersonic gas flow: Resolution of Navier-Stokes equations within an MHD force field by the method of characteristics (1987).Plasma physics and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)
Petit is a pioneer in magnetohydrodynamics involving fluid mechanics, plasma physics and electromagnetismElectromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
, in both MHD types:
- The well-known MHD with high magnetic Reynolds numberMagnetic Reynolds numberThe Magnetic Reynolds number is a dimensionless group thatoccurs in magnetohydrodynamics. It gives an estimate of the effects of magnetic advection to magnetic diffusion, and is typically defined by:where* U is a typical velocity scale of the flow...
, as the astrophysical plasmaAstrophysical plasmaAn astrophysical plasma is a plasma the physical properties of which are studied as part of astrophysics. Much of the baryonic matter of the universe is thought to consist of plasma, a state of matter in which atoms and molecules are so hot, that they have ionized by breaking up into their...
inside a starStarA star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
for example. - The less-known MHD with low magnetic Reynolds number and critical Hall parameter, involving weakly ionized gasesDegree of ionizationThe degree of ionization refers to the proportion of neutral particles, such as those in a gas or aqueous solution, that are ionized into charged particles...
in a non-equilibrium stateNon-equilibrium thermodynamicsNon-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of thermodynamics that deals with systems that are not in thermodynamic equilibrium. Most systems found in nature are not in thermodynamic equilibrium; for they are changing or can be triggered to change over time, and are continuously and discontinuously...
(i.e. where the electron temperatureElectron temperatureIf the velocities of a group of electrons, e.g., in a plasma, follow a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, then the electron temperature is well-defined as the temperature of that distribution...
is higher than the gas temperature) known as "cold plasmas", which are mathematically handled with dyadic tensorDyadic tensorIn multilinear algebra, a dyadic is a second rank tensor written in a special notation, formed by juxtaposing pairs of vectors, along with a notation for manipulating such expressions analogous to the rules for matrix algebra....
s in a 7-dimensional phase spacePhase spaceIn mathematics and physics, a phase space, introduced by Willard Gibbs in 1901, is a space in which all possible states of a system are represented, with each possible state of the system corresponding to one unique point in the phase space...
. But these non-thermal plasmas are also magnetized plasmas, and the combination of these attributes gives rise to the problematic electrothermal instabilityElectrothermal instabilityThe electrothermal instability is a magnetohydrodynamic instability appearing in magnetized non-thermal plasmas used in MHD converters...
which compelled most engaged countries to cancel their engineering MHD programs in the early 1970s.
MHD Power generation
He started working in this field with shock tubeShock tube
For the pyrotechnic initiator, see Shock tube detonatorThe shock tube is an instrument used to replicate and direct blast waves at a sensor or a model in order to simulate actual explosions and their effects, usually on a smaller scale...
s, acting as pulsed power MHD generator
MHD generator
The MHD generator or dynamo transforms thermal energy or kinetic energy directly into electricity. MHD generators are different from traditional electric generators in that they can operate at high temperatures without moving parts...
s delivering several megawatts through direct conversion of supersonic
Supersonic
Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...
hot gases into electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
, a device invented by Bert Zauderer and Jack Kerrebrock. In 1967, he presented the first experimental results of electrical power generation
Electricity generation
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric energy from other forms of energy.The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday...
in a pulsed non-equilibrium high-Hall parameter MHD generator, producing two megawatts of electric power
Electric power
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
within a magnetic field
Magnetic field
A magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...
of 2 teslas
Tesla (unit)
The tesla is the SI derived unit of magnetic field B . One tesla is equal to one weber per square meter, and it was defined in 1960 in honour of the inventor, physicist, and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla...
in a volume the size of a beer bottle, constituting the first step to cool down the gas in order to protect materials from heat, by controlling the electrothermal instability within MHD converters.
In 1972 he defended in front of Evry Schatzman
Évry Schatzman
Evry Léon Schatzman was a French astrophysicist.His father, Benjamin Schatzman, was a dentist born in Tulcea, Romania and emigrated at a young age with his family in Palestine. Schatzman began his studies at the École Normale Supérieure in November 1939...
his Doctor of Engineering thesis:
- The first part presents the basis for the first kinetic theory of non-equilibrium plasmas, starting from the ChapmanSydney Chapman (astronomer)Sydney Chapman FRS was a British mathematician and geophysicist. His work on the kinetic theory of gases, solar-terrestrial physics, and the Earth's ozone layer has inspired a broad range of research over many decades....
-EnskogDavid EnskogDavid Enskog was a Swedish mathematical physicist. Enskog helped develop the kinetic theory of gases by extending the Maxwell–Boltzmann equations.- Biography :...
method for the transport phenomenaTransport PhenomenaTransport Phenomena is the first textbook that is about transport phenomena. It is specifically designed for chemical engineering students...
and extending it to a biparametric expansion in series. This work is published through peer reviewPeer reviewPeer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
. - The second part is an application of the kinetic theory of gases to galactic dynamics. Through this he resumed the work of Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharSubrahmanyan ChandrasekharSubrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, FRS ) was an Indian origin American astrophysicist who, with William A. Fowler, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics for key discoveries that led to the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars...
, by compacting the calculations into a matrixMatrix (mathematics)In mathematics, a matrix is a rectangular array of numbers, symbols, or expressions. The individual items in a matrix are called its elements or entries. An example of a matrix with six elements isMatrices of the same size can be added or subtracted element by element...
form.
Coanda effect and air-breathing MHD accelerators
When he was a student at Supaero, Petit studied there the first supersonic disc nozzleNozzle
A nozzle is a device designed to control the direction or characteristics of a fluid flow as it exits an enclosed chamber or pipe via an orifice....
, which radially spits a very thin supersonic flat air jet
Jet (fluid)
A jet is an efflux of fluid that is projected into a surrounding medium, usually from some kind of a nozzle, aperture or orifice. Jets can travel long distances without dissipating...
from an annular convergent output along the surface of the device. Then the Coandă effect
Coanda effect
The Coandă effect is the tendency of a fluid jet to be attracted to a nearby surface. The principle was named after Romanian aerodynamics pioneer Henri Coandă, who was the first to recognize the practical application of the phenomenon in aircraft development....
sucks the air flow along the bent wall, sucks down ambient air and creates a low pressure area
Low pressure area
A low-pressure area, or "low", is a region where the atmospheric pressure at sea level is below that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure systems form under areas of wind divergence which occur in upper levels of the troposphere. The formation process of a low-pressure area is known as...
on top of the device, inducing lift
Lift (force)
A fluid flowing past the surface of a body exerts a surface force on it. Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction. It contrasts with the drag force, which is the component of the surface force parallel to the flow direction...
. This is how the Aerodina Lenticulara works, a device patented by Henri Coandă
Henri Coanda
Henri Marie Coandă was a Romanian inventor, aerodynamics pioneer and builder of an experimental aircraft, the Coandă-1910 described by Coandă in the mid-1950s as the world's first jet, a controversial claim disputed by some and supported by others...
, whom Petit met in these days. He also explained Coandă's disc experiments in a popular science review.
In 1975, he invented new MHD converters named MHD aerodynes and published the idea in a scientific journal.
An MHD aerodyne is an aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
concept with no moving part, where surrounding air is ionized (for example with microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
s), transformed into a cold plasma, then accelerated by electromagnetic fields around its external hull. It is thus an external flow MHD accelerator with ionization
Ionization
Ionization is the process of converting an atom or molecule into an ion by adding or removing charged particles such as electrons or other ions. This is often confused with dissociation. A substance may dissociate without necessarily producing ions. As an example, the molecules of table sugar...
control (opposed to classical magnetoplasmadynamic thruster
Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster
The Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster is a form of electrically powered spacecraft propulsion which uses the Lorentz force to generate thrust...
s where hot gases are electromagnetically accelerated internally, inside a rocket engine nozzle). In order to accommodate electromagnetic coils and the magnetic field lines they create in the air, the hull of MHD aerodynes must have symmetrical
Symmetry
Symmetry generally conveys two primary meanings. The first is an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically pleasing proportionality and balance; such that it reflects beauty or perfection...
geometries
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
(cylinder
Cylinder (geometry)
A cylinder is one of the most basic curvilinear geometric shapes, the surface formed by the points at a fixed distance from a given line segment, the axis of the cylinder. The solid enclosed by this surface and by two planes perpendicular to the axis is also called a cylinder...
or sphere
Sphere
A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object in three-dimensional space, such as the shape of a round ball. Like a circle in two dimensions, a perfect sphere is completely symmetrical around its center, with all points on the surface lying the same distance r from the center point...
for example). A magnetic field as strong as possible is required to rise the acceleration efficiency. But high B-fields give a high Hall parameter β and it is well known in the engineering field of MHD power generation that high Hall effect MHD converters are preferably disk-shaped. It is the same thing with MHD accelerators, and high Hall effect MHD aerodynes must be disk-shaped, so the electric discharges in the plasma (streamers
Tesla coil
A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...
) can swirl freely around axis, for the Lorentz forces J×B to be centrifugal.
Thereby the discoidal MHD aerodyne is very similar to Coandă's Aerodina Lenticulara. Both use the Coandă effect to induce lift. The main difference is that the MHD aerodyne uses electromagnetic forces to suck and propel air around the device, instead of mechanical means. It is an "electromagnetic Coanda disk". Admittedly the idea of discoidal aircraft with silent MHD propulsion had been suggested before, but it had never been published in academic journals nor experimented hitherto. However Leik Myrabo
Leik Myrabo
Leik Myrabo is an aerospace engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who has demonstrated the feasibility of using ground-based lasers to propel objects into orbit; possibly reducing orbit-flight costs by a factor of 1000.-Research:...
later popularized this idea in the USA with his microwave-powered Lightcraft
Lightcraft
A lightcraft is a space- or air-vehicle driven by laser propulsion. Laser propulsion is currently in early stages of development. Lightcraft use an external source of laser or maser energy to provide power for producing thrust. The laser/maser energy is focused to a high intensity in order to...
project using an external flow-control MHD accelerator: Myrabo first talked about an "externally-excited-field MHD accelerator" in 1976,
but could experiment his annular "MHD Slipstream Accelerator" prototype for the first time at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
in 1999.
MHD flow control and supersonic without shock wave
Petit calculates MHD forces, creating a partial vacuumVacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
area on front or on top of the device, would be powerful enough to evacuate incoming upstream molecule
Molecule
A molecule is an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their electrical charge...
s at supersonic speed before they accumulate at the stationary point, preventing the shock wave
Shock wave
A shock wave is a type of propagating disturbance. Like an ordinary wave, it carries energy and can propagate through a medium or in some cases in the absence of a material medium, through a field such as the electromagnetic field...
s, thus controlling sound
Sound barrier
The sound barrier, in aerodynamics, is the point at which an aircraft moves from transonic to supersonic speed. The term, which occasionally has other meanings, came into use during World War II, when a number of aircraft started to encounter the effects of compressibility, a collection of several...
and heat barriers. MHD acceleration can indeed be very powerful, even more than chemical propulsion, because the acceleration efficiency grows like the magnetic field strength and is not limited by propellant
Propellant
A propellant is a material that produces pressurized gas that:* can be directed through a nozzle, thereby producing thrust ;...
's inertia
Inertia
Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. It is proportional to an object's mass. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to...
as in chemical propulsion. For example a pulsed small MHD accelerator can accelerate a ionized gas over 5,000 meters per second with only 10-centimeter electrodes and a moderate 2-tesla magnetic field, as shown at IMFM in 1970.
Petit obtained from 1975 to 1983 several positive experimental results with his MHD flow control devices:
- In hydraulicsHydraulicsHydraulics is a topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. In fluid power, hydraulics is used for the generation, control,...
: MHD parietal accelerator experiments and bow waveBow waveA bow wave is the wave that forms at the bow of a ship when it moves through the water. As the bow wave spreads out, it defines the outer limits of a ship's wake. A large bow wave slows the ship down, poses a risk to smaller boats, and in a harbor can cause damage to shore facilities and moored ships...
cancellation by Lorentz forceLorentz forceIn physics, the Lorentz force is the force on a point charge due to electromagnetic fields. It is given by the following equation in terms of the electric and magnetic fields:...
s around a cylinder embedded in an acidulated waterAcidulated waterAcidulated water is water where some sort of acid is added—often lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar—to prevent cut or skinned fruits or vegetables from browning so as to maintain their appearance. Some vegetables and fruits which are often placed in acidulated water are: apples, avocados,...
flow. This work is an hydraulic analogy of shock wave cancellation in gas, allowing to consider the possibility of supersonic cruise in dense air without any sonic boomSonic boomA sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion...
. - In magnetized Low pressure dischargeLow pressure dischargeLow-pressure discharges are discharges made under gas pressures from a few millitorr to a little less than atmospheric. They have the benefit of less power requirement of sustenance of the discharge as volume-recombination rates are lower....
s with high Hall parameter: creation of spiral currentsElectric currentElectric current is a flow of electric charge through a medium.This charge is typically carried by moving electrons in a conductor such as wire...
, plasma confinement to wall and electrothermal instability cancellation by magnetic pressureMagnetic pressureMagnetic pressure is an energy density associated with the magnetic field. It is identical to any other physical pressure except that it is carried by the magnetic field rather than kinetic energy of the gas molecules. Interplay between magnetic pressure and ordinary gas pressure is important to...
gradientGradientIn vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar field is a vector field that points in the direction of the greatest rate of increase of the scalar field, and whose magnitude is the greatest rate of change....
.
He published these results in specialized journals and conferences,
In 1983 he summarized his research about MHD propulsion and flow control in a scientific comic book titled The Silence Barrier where he popularizes these new concepts.
In 1987, the student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
Bertrand Lebrun from the French Engineering institute ENSAM
École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers
Arts et Métiers ParisTech is the French leading engineering school in the fields of mechanics and industrialization.The school trained 85,000 engineers since its foundation in 1780 by the Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt....
defended his Doctor of Engineering thesis under the direction of Jean-Pierre Petit.
The subject in the mathematical calculation of shock wave cancellation around a flat wing
Wing
A wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid...
in a supersonic gas flow, where they develop a method to solve the Navier-Stokes equations
Navier-Stokes equations
In physics, the Navier–Stokes equations, named after Claude-Louis Navier and George Gabriel Stokes, describe the motion of fluid substances. These equations arise from applying Newton's second law to fluid motion, together with the assumption that the fluid stress is the sum of a diffusing viscous...
within an MHD force field by the method of characteristics
Method of characteristics
In mathematics, the method of characteristics is a technique for solving partial differential equations. Typically, it applies to first-order equations, although more generally the method of characteristics is valid for any hyperbolic partial differential equation...
. This work is published in international MHD meetings,
and in peer-reviewed journals.
New research
In 2007 Petit created UFO-Science, a non-profit organizationNon-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
devoted to scientific study of the UFO phenomenon. Electromagnetic plasma propulsion and supersonic flight without shock wave
Shock wave
A shock wave is a type of propagating disturbance. Like an ordinary wave, it carries energy and can propagate through a medium or in some cases in the absence of a material medium, through a field such as the electromagnetic field...
through flow control by MHD force field are studied in a new laboratory running with private funds, called LAMBDA λ (Laboratory for Applications of MHD in Bitemperature Discharges to Aerodynamics). He created this concept of "Citizen Research" because he claims the Establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
represented by official scientific public administration
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....
, such as the CNRS and the CNES
CNES
The is the French government space agency . Established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961, its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research...
, failed to concretize his ideas because of military strategic
Military strategy
Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops...
implications.
Galactic dynamics
From 1972, Petit launched into theoretical research in astrophysics at Marseille Observatory. At the beginning he presented some work consecutive to his thesis about the kinetic theory of gases applied to galactic dynamics. In this work the Friedmann equationsFriedmann equations
The Friedmann equations are a set of equations in physical cosmology that govern the expansion of space in homogeneous and isotropic models of the universe within the context of general relativity...
emerge from an elliptic solution of the Vlasov equation
Vlasov equation
The Vlasov equation is a differential equation describing time evolution of the distribution function of plasma consisting of charged particles with long-range interaction...
coupled with Poisson's equation
Poisson's equation
In mathematics, Poisson's equation is a partial differential equation of elliptic type with broad utility in electrostatics, mechanical engineering and theoretical physics...
. He then published a rewriting of the Newtonian cosmology, resuming a work from 1934 by Arthur Milne
Arthur Milne
Edward Arthur Milne FRS was a British astrophysicist and mathematician.- Biography :Milne was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England...
and William McCrea
William McCrea (astronomer)
Sir William Hunter McCrea FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician.-Biography:His family moved to Kent in 1906 and then Derbyshire where he attended Chesterfield Grammar School. His father was a school master at Netherthorpe Grammar School in Staveley...
but from the point of view of his kinetic theory of non-equilibrium plasmas, which allows one to find the rotating universe model of Otto Heckmann
Otto Heckmann
Otto Hermann Leopold Heckmann was a German astronomer.He directed the Hamburg Observatory from 1941 to 1962, after which he became the first director of the European Southern Observatory. , Otto Heckmann He actively contributed to the creation of the third issue of the Astronomische Gesellschaft...
and Engelbert Schücking
Engelbert Schücking
Engelbert Schücking is a physics professor at New York University in New York City. His research interests are theoretical astrophysics, general relativity and cosmology...
.
Variable constants cosmology
In 1988, Petit introduced the idea of variable speed of light in cosmologyCosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
,
along with the joint variations of all physical constant
Physical constant
A physical constant is a physical quantity that is generally believed to be both universal in nature and constant in time. It can be contrasted with a mathematical constant, which is a fixed numerical value but does not directly involve any physical measurement.There are many physical constants in...
s combined to space and time scale factor
Scale factor
A scale factor is a number which scales, or multiplies, some quantity. In the equation y=Cx, C is the scale factor for x. C is also the coefficient of x, and may be called the constant of proportionality of y to x...
s changes, so that all equations and measurements of these constants remain unchanged through the evolution of the universe. The Einstein field equation remains invariant through convenient joint variations of c and G in Einstein's constant. The invariances requirement of Schrödinger
Schrödinger equation
The Schrödinger equation was formulated in 1926 by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. Used in physics , it is an equation that describes how the quantum state of a physical system changes in time....
and Maxwell's equations
Maxwell's equations
Maxwell's equations are a set of partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electrodynamics, classical optics, and electric circuits. These fields in turn underlie modern electrical and communications technologies.Maxwell's equations...
fulfill the set of gauge
Gauge theory
In physics, gauge invariance is the property of a field theory in which different configurations of the underlying fundamental but unobservable fields result in identical observable quantities. A theory with such a property is called a gauge theory...
joint variations laws of the constants. The fine-structure constant
Fine-structure constant
In physics, the fine-structure constant is a fundamental physical constant, namely the coupling constant characterizing the strength of the electromagnetic interaction. Being a dimensionless quantity, it has constant numerical value in all systems of units...
becomes an absolute constant. Late-model restricts the variation of constants to the relativistic Radiation-Dominated Era
Radiation-Dominated Era
The radiation-dominated era refers to one of the three phases of the known universe, the other two being the matter-dominated era and the dark-energy-dominated era. During this era, the dynamics of the universe were set by radiation, which refers generally to the constituents of the universe which...
of the early universe, where spacetime is identified to space-entropy with a conformally flat
Conformally flat
A Riemannian manifold is conformally flat if each point has a neighborhood that can be mapped to flat space by a conformal transformation.More formally, let be a pseudo-Riemannian manifold...
metric.
Bi-gravity cosmological model (Twin universe theory)
From 1977, Petit started to build an atypical cosmological model, nowadays called the bigravity theory but formerly known as the twin universe theory, completed over the years. This model proposes a radically different vision for the universe, in opposition with the standard cosmology, but shares similarities with a model published before by Andrei Sakharov.In the bi-gravity theory, there is not only one universe, but two parallel universes
Multiverse
The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise all of reality.Multiverse may also refer to:-In fiction:* Multiverse , the fictional multiverse used by DC Comics...
with two conjugated Riemannian metrics
Riemannian manifold
In Riemannian geometry and the differential geometry of surfaces, a Riemannian manifold or Riemannian space is a real differentiable manifold M in which each tangent space is equipped with an inner product g, a Riemannian metric, which varies smoothly from point to point...
having their own geodesic
Geodesic
In mathematics, a geodesic is a generalization of the notion of a "straight line" to "curved spaces". In the presence of a Riemannian metric, geodesics are defined to be the shortest path between points in the space...
s, interacting through gravitation
Gravitation
Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped...
. Whereas Petit claims his theory explains various observational facts that the standard model
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
cannot answer, and despite several publications through peer review, this model has not triggered much interest in the cosmological community throughout the years. However, in August 2007 Petit incorporated an international club of high-level geometers who take interest in his model and validate his work from its mathematical ground.
Popular science
The general public have known of Petit from the 1970s, from his series of "scientific comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s" published in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
as Les Aventures d'Anselme Lanturlu (Lanturlu land), depicting a young character who explains hard scientific concepts with easy popular meaning and simple analogies. Petit consequently created a non-profit organization named Savoir-sans-frontières (Knowledge without borders) to remunerate people all over the world for translation of these books into all available languages. In English for example, the collection is known as The Adventures of Archibald Higgins. These educational books are freely available to download as PDF files
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
from the organization's web site (Savoir sans frontières ).
He re-published in 2001 his book "On a perdu la moitié de l'univers" (We lost half of the universe). The book was first published in 1997 by Albin Michel. This short book is mainly a face to face between two hypothesis (a universe containing dark matter VS a universe interacting via gravitation with shadow-matter) and how do they explain the universe. He also write in 1999 "The dark side of the universe" but was never published. This book is freely available to download (The dark side of the universe). This book contain also the information published in "On a perdu la moitié de l'univers" but cover more subjects in astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
, topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
, and cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
.
Claims and public matter of controversies
Petit is known to the general public through his popular science publications (books and comics) and by his appearances in French media, mostly about the UFO phenomenon. He is indeed favorable to the extraterrestrial hypothesisExtraterrestrial hypothesis
The extraterrestrial hypothesis is the hypothesis that some unidentified flying objects are best explained as being extraterrestrial life or non-human aliens from other planets occupying physical spacecraft visiting Earth.-Etymology:...
explaining some UFO cases, and the conspiracy theory
UFO conspiracy theory
A UFO conspiracy theory is any one of many often overlapping conspiracy theories which argue that evidence of the reality of unidentified flying objects is being suppressed by various governments around the world...
about a cover-up
Cover-up
A cover-up is an attempt, whether successful or not, to conceal evidence of wrong-doing, error, incompetence or other embarrassing information...
from the armed forces
Armed forces
The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external aggressors. In some countries paramilitary...
to take a decisive technological, thus strategic advantage over other nations. He loudly denounces the tight relationship between the army and scientists since the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
, which has created according to him a powerful military R&D leading to futuristic weapons of mass destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
and unmoral crowd
Crowd control
Crowd control is the controlling of a crowd, to prevent the outbreak of disorder and prevention of possible riot. Examples are at soccer matches, when a sale of goods has attracted an excess of customers, refugee control, or mass decontamination and mass quarantine situations . It calls for gentler...
and riot control
Riot control
Riot control refers to the measures used by police, military, or other security forces to control, disperse, and arrest civilians who are involved in a riot, demonstration, or protest. Law enforcement officers or soldiers have long used non-lethal weapons such as batons and whips to disperse crowds...
technologies, to the exclusive use of the military-industrial complex
Military-industrial complex
Military–industrial complex , or Military–industrial-congressional complex is a concept commonly used to refer to policy and monetary relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the industrial sector that supports them...
. He also gives credit to 9/11 conspiracy theories
9/11 conspiracy theories
9/11 conspiracy theories are theories that disagree with the widely accepted account that the September 11 attacks were perpetrated solely by al-Qaeda. These theories arose because of what proponents of the conspiracy theories believe to be inconsistencies in the official conclusions or some...
through his web site. He thinks that global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and geopolitics
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
evolution caused by the unconsciousness of world political leaders
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
will create fatal irrevocable disorders in the near future. According to him, becoming aware that we are not alone in the universe and that we are visited by people having a better technology than ours is the last chance for mankind. Such unconventional opinions has raised various enmities against him.
Ummo case and ufology
In the 1990s he published several books about ufology and the Ummo case,from which he would have studied documents since 1974. He claimed to have found there useful inspiration for some of his work about MHD propulsion and cosmology. Thereafter those unidentified correspondents even sent mail to him for a while, where he would have again, according to him, found other starting points for additional research developments. His hierarchy does not welcome these books.
American secret weapons
After an international conference on advanced propulsion, Petit wrote a book, where he proclaims a leading edge science would have secretly emerged inside the US black projectBlack project
In the United States and United Kingdom, a black project is in the vernacular a classified military/defense project, unacknowledged publicly by the government, military personnel, and defense contractors. Examples of U.S...
s sanctuaries, involving intensive study of aerial plasma propulsion
Plasma propulsion engine
A plasma propulsion engine is a type of Ion thruster which uses plasma in some or all parts of the thrust generation process. Though far less powerful than conventional rocket engines, plasma engines are able to operate at higher efficiencies and for longer periods of time...
with electromagnetic flow control. He suggested such an acceleration of these technological programs would have been undertaken after military forces of the United States
Military of the United States
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
would had the proof of existence of intelligent
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
extraterrestrial life forms
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
visiting Earth in the 1940s, in particular with the so-called Roswell UFO crash
Roswell UFO incident
The Roswell UFO Incident was the recovery of an object that crashed in the general vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico, in June or July 1947, allegedly an extra-terrestrial spacecraft and its alien occupants. Since the late 1970s the incident has been the subject of intense controversy and of...
which he thinks was real.
Using his knowledge about plasma physics and magnetohydrodynamics, Petit describes a model of hypersonic
Hypersonic
In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that is highly supersonic. Since the 1970s, the term has generally been assumed to refer to speeds of Mach 5 and above...
plane
Fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
working with an MHD bypass system, claiming it would correspond to the mythic Aurora secret spyplane
Surveillance aircraft
A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance — collecting information over time. They are operated by military forces and other government agencies in roles such as intelligence gathering, battlefield surveillance, airspace surveillance, observation , border patrol and fishery...
US Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
would have brought into service in the 1990s. He gave several lectures on this subject, especially at the French aeronautical engineering school ENSAE where his object lesson was not criticized. Conversely, detractors of this idea never provided any technical argument in support of their denials.
Petit also envisages that the US Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
would have accidentally discovered how to generate antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
through superdense states of matter by the use of magnetically focused underground thermonuclear explosions
Underground nuclear testing
Underground nuclear testing refers to test detonations of nuclear weapons that are performed underground. When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to the atmosphere....
of several megatons
TNT equivalent
TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 gigajoules, which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT...
. Some antimatter bombs
Antimatter weapon
An antimatter weapon is a hypothetical device using antimatter as a power source, a propellant, or an explosive for a weapon. Antimatter weapons do not currently exist due to the cost of production and the limited technology available to produce and contain antimatter in sufficient quantities for...
would have been created, but too powerful to be tested on Earth they would have been camouflaged into what was known as the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 was a comet that broke apart and collided with Jupiter in July 1994, providing the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of solar system objects. This generated a large amount of coverage in the popular media, and the comet was closely observed by...
, then detonated on Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
. Most of his colleagues judge this story as fancy.
Aneutronic fusion energy vs pure fusion bombs
After the breakthrough made by Sandia National LaboratoriesSandia National Laboratories
The Sandia National Laboratories, managed and operated by the Sandia Corporation , are two major United States Department of Energy research and development national laboratories....
at the end of 2005 where researchers generated more than 3 billion degrees within the MHD compressor Z machine
Z machine
The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. Operated by Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons...
,
he tries to draw the attention of scientists, politicians, ecologists and the public to what he presents as a possible future clean nuclear civilian energy, thanks to aneutronic nuclear fusion
Aneutronic fusion
Aneutronic fusion is any form of fusion power where neutrons carry no more than 1% of the total released energy. The most-studied fusion reactions release up to 80% of their energy in neutrons...
reactions with none or very few radioactive waste
Radioactive waste
Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...
byproducts. But again this technology is potentially
Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...
proliferating and Petit claims it could also lead to new pure fusion weapon
Pure fusion weapon
A pure fusion weapon is a hypothetical hydrogen bomb design that does not need a fission "primary" explosive to ignite the fusion of deuterium and tritium, two heavy isotopes of hydrogen . Such a weapon would require no fissile material and would therefore be much easier to build in secret than...
s, where the central fission
Nuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
A-bomb used classically for ignition of the H-bomb would be useless, replaced by a fast electric pulsed power
Pulsed power
Pulsed power is the term used to describe the science and technology of accumulating energy over a relatively long period of time and releasing it very quickly thus increasing the instantaneous power.-Overview:...
detonator
Detonator
A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....
(a compact z-pinch
Z-pinch
In fusion power research, the Z-pinch, also known as zeta pinch or Bennett pinch , is a type of plasma confinement system that uses an electrical current in the plasma to generate a magnetic field that compresses it...
fed with some explosively pumped flux compression generator
Explosively pumped flux compression generator
An explosively pumped flux compression generator is a device used to generate a high-power electromagnetic pulse by compressing magnetic flux using high explosive....
).
See also
- Plasma physics
- MagnetohydrodynamicsMagnetohydrodynamicsMagnetohydrodynamics is an academic discipline which studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such fluids include plasmas, liquid metals, and salt water or electrolytes...
- MHD generatorMHD generatorThe MHD generator or dynamo transforms thermal energy or kinetic energy directly into electricity. MHD generators are different from traditional electric generators in that they can operate at high temperatures without moving parts...
- Magnetohydrodynamic driveMagnetohydrodynamic driveA magnetohydrodynamic drive or MHD propulsor is a method for propelling seagoing vessels using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts, using magnetohydrodynamics. The working principle involves electrification of the propellant which can then be directed by a magnetic field,...
- Magnetoplasmadynamic thrusterMagnetoplasmadynamic thrusterThe Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster is a form of electrically powered spacecraft propulsion which uses the Lorentz force to generate thrust...
- Variable speed of lightVariable speed of lightThe variable speed of light concept states that the speed of light in a vacuum, usually denoted by c, may not be constant in most cases. In most situations in condensed matter physics when light is traveling through a medium, it effectively has a slower speed...
- Parallel universeMultiverseThe multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise all of reality.Multiverse may also refer to:-In fiction:* Multiverse , the fictional multiverse used by DC Comics...
- Ummo
- Z machineZ machineThe Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. Operated by Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons...
- Archibald HigginsArchibald HigginsArchibald Higgins is the main character of the comics series of "The Adventures of Archibald Higgins"; created by the French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Petit as a translation of his French series "Les Aventures d'Anselme Lanturlu".This comics series explains mainly advanced scientific concepts.-...
External links
- Jean-Pierre Petit's personal web site (mostly in French and some parts in English)
- MHD Prospects (Jean-Pierre Petit's web site dedicated to scientific papers about MHD)
- Bigravity Theory (Jean-Pierre Petit's web site dedicated to his work in cosmology)
- UFO-Science (MHD research and scientific investigation about the UFO phenomenon)
- Savoir-sans-Frontières (Knowledge without borders, popular science comic books, mostly translated in English)
- LanturluLand
- Podcast: A conversation with Jean-Pierre Petit regarding his work. Part 1 (transcript), Part 2 (transcript)