This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier.

The attached
copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research
and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution
and sharing with colleagues.
Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or
licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party
websites are prohibited.
In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the
article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or
institutional repository. Authors requiring further information
regarding Elsevier’s archiving and manuscript policies are
encouraged to visit:
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright
 Author's personal copy

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857

www.elsevier.com/locate/chaos

Self-organization scenario grounded on new experimental

results
E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu *

Complex System Laboratory, Al. I. Cuza University, Blvd Carol I, No. 11, Iasi 700506, Romania

Accepted 17 September 2007

Abstract

Recently published experimental results proving that well-located plasma created in air by quick injection of energy
naturally evolves into a coherent, apparently stable and luminous gaseous body, dubbed fireball, are explained considering
a new scenario of self-organization. Bordered by a functional double layer emerged by direct conversion of thermal energy
into electric field energy through a mechanism exploiting collective effects of quantum processes, the fireball survives for
durations that depend on the environmental conditions. Based on this scenario of self-organization that evolves in a time
span in which the second law of thermodynamics ceases to work, enigmas as the ball lightning and the origin of life
becomes potentially explainable.
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

In an already published paper [1], we showed that a coherent, apparently stable and luminous complex space charge
configuration evolves from well-located hot collisional plasma (HCP) created by an electric spark at the surface of a
positively biased electrode. Bordered by a current driven nearly spherical double layer, the complexity survives in cold
plasma produced by diffusion in a gas at low pressure. When the cold plasma is subjected to a high frequency electric
field, the nearly spherical complexity detaches from the surface of the electrode transiting into a free-floating luminous
spherical space charge configuration known as plasmoid [2]. The plasmoid, bordered by a current-free spherical double
layer that works as a cavity, adapts its impedance to the external source of high frequency electric field so that it
survives through resonant absorption of energy. A similar experiment using a microwave-drill technique proves that
a coherent relatively stable and luminous space charge configuration buoyant in air at normal pressure, dubbed fireball,
emerges from a molten hot spot in solid material [3]. Considering this experimental result together with other ones [4–6]
as informative for elucidation the initial conditions under which matter evolves naturally (in absence of an external
driving force) from disorder (HCP) to order (fireball), we propose in the following a new scenario of self-organization.
Based on this scenario, we elaborate new conceptual models of natural phenomena, considered up yet enigmas of
science, as the emergence of the ball lightning under contemporary Earth conditions and of the most primitive living
organism under early Earth conditions.

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +40 232 201178; fax: +40 232 201150.
E-mail address: msandu@uaic.ro (M. Sanduloviciu).

0960-0779/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.chaos.2007.09.067
 Author's personal copy

1846 E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857

2. Scenario of self-organization

Starting from the experimental results presented in [3–6], we remark that a well-located HCP, produced by special
techniques in air at normal pressure, naturally evolves into a free floating coherent, stable and luminous gaseous body
dubbed fireball. Because the HCP is an isolated entity containing only disordered energy (thermal energy), we have to
explain its evolution into the fireball by a mechanism driven only by this energy. We start our explanation assuming that
the initial temperature of the HCP is so high that a nucleus enriched with positive ions, surrounded by a plasma mantle
enriched with electrons, emerges owing to the difference in thermal diffusivity of the electrons and positive ions. As a
result, a well-located potential drop develops between the positive nucleus and the surrounding negative plasma mantle.
The value of this potential drop depends on the initial temperature of HCP, i.e., on the energy injected in HCP and on
the time span in which this injection occurred. Starting from the experimental observation that the fireball does not
decay within milliseconds after its appearance (as all usually laboratory plasmas do) and that it is rather cold, despite
of its bright glow [4–6], we explain the appearance of fireballs starting with the following hypotheses: (i) the emergence
of the fireball occurs after the plasma located at the border of the HCP cools at a temperature for which thermal emis-
sion of light is not possible; (ii) the potential drop between the nucleus and the plasma mantel surpasses the ionization
potential of the atoms; (iii) the plasma located in the mantle contains a population of electrons with specific quasi-max-
wellian distribution of their thermal energy. Under such premises, the evolution of the HCP into fireball could be elu-
cidated considering a self-organization process identified in plasma diodes that explains the emergence of a nearly
spherical fireball in front of the anode when its voltage reaches a critical value [1,2,7,8]. Acting as a gas anode, the posi-
tive nucleus accelerates electrons extracted from the plasma mantle at kinetic energies sufficient to cause ionizations and
implicitly excitations. As a result, a part of electrons lose their kinetic energy after excitations forming, by accumula-
tion, a net negative space charge located at that distance from the nucleus where the excitation cross-section function
suddenly increases. Concomitant with the formation of the net negative space charge, another part of electrons, that
have not caused excitations, obtain energy for which ionizations occur after acceleration toward the nucleus. Since
the nucleus quickly collects the electrons that caused ionizations and those liberated by such processes, a net positive
space charge appears in the region where the ionization cross-section function suddenly increases. So, two adjacent
opposite net space charges appear located in the region where the excitation and ionization cross sections suddenly
increase. Their spatial arrangement is changing concomitant with the accumulation of opposite net space charges in
the two adjacent regions. Consequently, at a certain moment of evolution, the electrostatic forces that act as long-range
correlation forces between the two adjacent opposite net space charges become dominant with respect to the forces
related to the electric field created by the positive nucleus. In that moment, the two opposite net space charges approach
one to the other forming a spherical bi-potential structure able to support a proper potential drop. Under such condi-
tions, after acceleration in this well-located potential drop, a part of the most energetic electrons extracted from the
plasma mantel (presumed to contain a population of electrons with quasi-maxwellian distribution of their thermal
energy) obtain the energy required to cause new ionizations at the positive side of the bi-potential structure. Since
the nucleus collects the electrons that caused ionizations and those liberated by these ionization processes, the concen-
tration of positive ions increases at its positive side. As a result, the local electric field grows so that a new group of
electrons whose thermal energy is smaller but their number is greater, extracted from the plasma mantel, become able
to cause ionizations. Considering that the initial positive potential of the nucleus was so high that it continues to collect
electrons, the electric field created by the positive ions increases again. In this higher local electric field, a new group of
electrons whose thermal energy is smaller but their number is greater cause new ionizations so that the phenomena
repeat. In this way, it works an internal positive feedback mechanism in which the created positive ions act as ‘‘catalyst’’
for increasing the production rate of new positive ions. The auto-catalyzing effect is caused by the increase of the pro-
duction of positive ions much quicker than their recombination and diffusion rates and also because the positive nucleus
quickly collects the electrons resulting after ionizations. Such a mechanism (that manifests as instability) works only if
the descendant branch of the quasi-maxwellian energy distribution function of the electrons located in the plasma man-
tle is sufficiently abrupt [8]. Each new positive ion appeared in this way increases the local electric field created by the net
positive charge located at the positive side of the bi-potential structure. This determines the increase of the electric field
in which the electrons from the plasma mantle are accelerated and, consequently, the increase of the excitation rate. As
a consequence, new electrons accumulate at its low potential side concomitant with the location of new positive ions at
the high potential side of the bi-potential structure. So, a very great number of positive ions and electrons arranged in
the form of elementary dipoles locate in the bi-potential structure. Every of these elementary dipoles ‘‘sequesters’’ a
certain amount of electric field energy. The mechanism through which this takes place is the presence of the electric
field created by the positive nucleus that accelerates electrons extracted from the plasma mantle at energies for which
the excitation and ionization cross-section functions abruptly increase in two adjacent regions. This means that the
nucleus performs labor for creating elementary dipoles through a mechanism exploiting collective effects of quantum
 Author's personal copy

E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857 1847

processes as ionizations and excitations. Owing to the presence of the afore-described self-enhancement of the produc-
tion of positive ions, the number of elementary dipoles increases very quickly. This increase is, as aforementioned,
directly related to the acceleration of electrons extracted from the plasma mantle in the electric field of the positive
nucleus. The number of these electrons increases much quicker than their thermal energy decreases. This reveals that
the increase of the number of elementary dipoles and, implicitly, the amount of the electric field energy located in the
bi-potential structure have their origin in the work done by the positive nucleus for accelerating electrons extracted from
the plasma mantle. In this sense, the labor performed by the positive nucleus could be regarded as an energy ‘‘kiting’’
process. This takes place in every elementary dipole when a new electron loses its kinetic energy by excitation of an
atom and consequently locates at the negative side of the bi-potential structure. Since the excited atoms return in
the ground state after 10 8 s, a delay appears between two very short events: the conversion of thermal energy into elec-
tric field energy in the dipoles and the emission of electromagnetic energy, in the form of photons, in the surroundings.
The emitted light is incoherent because of the random ionization and excitation processes involved in the self-assem-
blage of the bi-potential structure. In this context, the presence of metastable atoms in the plasma mantle can substan-
tially increase the time span between the aforementioned two events and, what is more important, the emitted light may
be coherent.
So, a luminous gaseous body, namely the fireball, emerges in a very short time span that corresponds to the duration
of the instability (the self-enhancement of the production of positive ions). The most astonishing phenomenon related
with the fireball appearance is its capacity to survive for a time interval that substantially surpasses the duration of its
emergence. Thus, the fireballs created by microwave techniques survive another 30–40 ms after the microwave energy
involved in its emergence is turned off [3]. Similar phenomena proving that the fireballs have a life time much longer
than the time span in which it emerged from a HCP are describes in [4–6]. The so-called long-living fireballs have been
already observed by producing electrical arcs in the switch gear of circuits through which very intensive currents flow
but also in other plasma devices [9].
For explaining their relatively long lifetime, we consider as informative recently published experimental results [8].
These experiments prove that a coherent, nearly spherical, stable and luminous complexity endowed with a special
kind of memory, proper to all systems emerged by self-organization [10], emerges at the anode of a plasma diode
by a scenario of self-organization as above described. Owing to this memory, the bi-potential structure at the border
of the complexity performs all of the operations ‘‘learned’’ during its emergence by self-organization. So, the bi-poten-
tial structure continues to convert thermal energy extracted from the surrounding plasma into electric field energy
through a mechanism exploiting collective effects of quantum processes also when the potential at its positive side sur-
passes the potential of the anode [8]. This means that the potential of the anode does not control the potential drop
sustained by the bi-potential structure after its transition into the final stationary state. For sustaining the potential at
the high potential side greater than the potential of the anode, the electrons extracted from the plasma and accelerated
in the bi-potential structure have to produce, besides ionizations, also a local heating process. Under such circum-
stances, the electrons leave this region because of their higher thermal diffusivity with respect to that of the positive
ions so that the potential at the positive side of the bi-potential structure will be maintained greater than the potential
of the anode. For sustaining this potential drop, the bi-potential structure performs labor transporting thermal energy
from the surrounding plasma to the heated plasma enriched in positive ions located at its positive side. This takes
place under the conditions that between the positive side of the bi-potential structure and the anode there exists an
electric field that decelerates the electrons. In spite of this decelerating electric field, a part of electrons that traversed
the bi-potential structure, namely those electrons whose thermal energy surpasses a critical value, reach the surface of
the anode and consequently are collected by the external dc power supply. So, the bi-potential structure performs
labor for generating current by a mechanism exploiting collective effects of quantum processes, fact proved by emis-
sion of incoherent light. Working in this way, the bi-potential structure at the border of the complexity attached to the
anode ‘‘helps’’ the external dc power supply to transport current through the plasma between the cathode and anode
of the plasma diode [11].
The capacity of the complexity attached to the anode of a plasma diode to memorize the events taking place during
its emergence by self-organization is proved experimentally by hysteresis [8]. Its presence is related to the fact that the
stationary state of the complexity is sustained by ionization processes produced only by a part of the electrons extracted
from the surrounding plasma. These electrons have thermal energy corresponding to the part of the descendent branch
of their thermal energy distribution function placed at a certain distance below the maximum of this function. So, the
complexity emphasizes certain robustness with respect to local fluctuations since there is a ‘‘reserve’’ of electrons that
possess thermal energies able to maintain the ionization rate at the critical value needed for its survival also when fluc-
tuations tend to decrease this ionization rate.
Returning to the bi-potential structure emerged at the border of the fireball free floating in air, it is clear that,
simultaneously with the quick increase of its potential drop, the potential of the nucleus decreases. This is because
 Author's personal copy

1848 E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857

during the evolution of the bi-potential structure the nucleus collects the electrons resulting after ionization at its
positive side. Accepting as informative the above briefly mentioned plasma experiments [8], we presume that the
increase of the potential drop supported by the bi-potential structure stops when its positive side reaches a poten-
tial that surpasses the potential of the nucleus. This means that, for ensuring the stability of such a space charge
arrangement, the bi-potential structure at the border of the positive nucleus continues to perform labor transport-
ing thermal energy from the ‘‘cold’’ plasma mantle into the ‘‘warmer’’ plasma enriched in positive ions at its posi-
tive side. Performing this labor through a mechanism exploiting collective effects of quantum processes, the bi-
potential structure works as a functional double layer (FDL) that continuously converts directly thermal energy
extracted from the plasma mantle into energy of the electric field located in its own ordered space charge arrange-
ment. For surviving in this way, the nucleus of the fireball must be able to expel that part of electrons that tra-
versing the bi-potential structure arrive in it. This becomes possible considering that these electrons produce there,
besides ionizations, also a local heating process. So, owing to the difference between the thermal diffusivity of elec-
trons and positive ions, the first ones leave the nucleus so that its potential remains positive as long as the plasma
mantle is able to supply with electrons and thermal energy the self-assemblage process of the FDL at the border of
the fireball. For surviving in a stable state, the evolution of the bi-potential structure at the border of the fireball
must stop. This takes place when the production of new positive ions at the positive side of the bi-potential struc-
ture is balanced by the lost of positive ions by recombination, diffusion and so on, i.e., a negative feedback mech-
anism acts. The balance is realized by the interaction of a very great number of electrons with the gas atoms. So,
the four basic ingredients needed for considering a phenomenon as a self-organization process (positive feedback,
negative feedback, balance of exploitation and exploration and multiples interactions) are realized in the case of the
fireball.
Based on the astonishing similarities between the visual aspect and behavior of fireballs emerged by self-organization
in plasma diodes [1,2] and that described in [3–6], we presume that the enigmas related to the emergence of long-living
fireballs in ambient atmosphere could be explained considering at its origin a self-organization process similar to that
revealed by experiments performed in plasma diodes. Consequently, we consider the fireballs described in [3–6] as a
complexity endowed with a special kind of memory that manifests in the ability of the FDL at its border to perform
labor, converting directly thermal energy extracted from the plasma mantle into energy located in the electric field that
ensures its coherence. The machinery by which the FDL performs labor is of a special type because it involves transport
of thermal energy extracted from a cold reservoir (the plasma mantle) toward warmer plasma located at the positive
side of the FDL and the nucleus. For performing labor, the FDL exploits collective effects of quantum processes, fact
experimentally revealed by emission of incoherent light.
The experimental results described in [3–6] prove, in our opinion, that by very quick injection of energy, it is possible
to create a well-located HCP at such a distance from thermodynamic equilibrium that the ‘‘arrow’’ of its natural evo-
lution is not oriented to disorder, as required by the second law of thermodynamics, but to the emergence of spatial
order in the form of a complexity bordered by a FDL, namely the fireball.
For additionally underlying the above-presented scenario of self-organization, we remind other recently published
experimental results proving the presence of a self-enhancement of the production of positive ions before the self-
assemblage of the fireball [12]. This experiment reveals that the appearance of a fireball attached to the anode of
a plasma diode is preceded by a very short (in the order of 3 ls) so-called ‘‘current overshoot’’. Evolving for a con-
stant voltage applied on the anode, the current overshoot is a process driven only by internal causes. Since the ion-
ization is the single possibility to create new charged particles in the plasma diode, the very quick increase of the
current, namely the current overshoot, requires the presence of an internal self-enhancement process of the produc-
tion of positive ions. At its turn, this self-enhancement process needs work done by the bi-potential structure for
accelerating successive groups of electrons whose number increases much faster than their thermal energy decreases.
Doing this work, the bi-potential structure increases its potential drop by direct conversion of thermal energy into
electric field energy in a time span of about 7 ls. After this time span, a stable so-called firerod appears attached
to the anode.
Another paper able to argue the scenario of self-organization described in this paper comprises photographs of the
evolution of a laser induced HCP into a fireball in ambient air [13]. These photographs proved that a HCP created by
vaporization from metallic target by a laser pulse evolves firstly, in a time span of several 10 ns, into a confined, stable
and luminous gaseous body that, once emerged, survives for duration in the order of 500 ns. Since the HCP is very
quickly created and it is characterized by very high electron concentration, of several 1018 cm 3 , and a temperature
of 10,000 K, the conditions presumed by us to be able to initiate the nucleation of a positive nucleus surrounded by
a plasma mantle are potentially present. The photographs presented in [13] also confirm the presence of a plasma man-
tle at the border of the fireball. Consequently, the long lifetime of the fireball (in the order of several 100 ns) could be
also explained by a mechanism as that described in this paper.
 Author's personal copy

E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857 1849

3. Resonance property of the fireball

Based on the phenomenological model of self-organization above described, we explain another experimental result
reported in [3] namely, the survival of the fireball as long as the source of microwave energy is on. For surviving, the
fireball adapts its impedance to the external microwave source absorbing electromagnetic energy at resonance. The fire-
ball, emerging when plasma in the form of a fire column is present only for a very short time span, survives in air by
resonant absorption of energy from the external microwave source [3]. Such absorption of energy is possible when the
confinement, relative stability and light emission of the fireball are ensured by a spherical FDL that works as a cavity.
Under such conditions, the very high concentration of microwave power stored in the cavity by microwave energy
absorption produces two effects: (i) diminution of the gas pressure to the values for which a hot microwave plasma
is creating inside the fireball and, consequently, the electrons are expelled by thermal diffusion; (ii) diminution of the
pressure of the air in the next vicinity of the fireball at the value for which the part of microwave energy that penetrates
the FDL at the border of the fireball creates there a plasma mantel. This means that the presence of a plasma mantel
could explain the self-assemblage process and the survival of a fireball by a self-organization process similar to that at
the origin of the plasmoid [2]. Such a mechanism works as long as the microwave source of energy is on. This means
that the survival of the fireball is possible because the microwave energy delivered by the external source continuously
creates an environment (the plasma mantle) able to supply with matter and thermal energy the continuous self-assem-
blage process of the double layer at its border. Under such circumstances, the fireball is actually an entity that extracts
matter and thermal energy from a ‘‘reservoir’’ (the plasma mantle) that, at its turn, is sustained by extraction of energy
from an external source. The presence of the plasma mantle explains also the ability of the fireball to survive another
30–40 ms [3] after the source of microwave energy is turned off.
When the fireball is created in plasma subjected to a high-frequency electric field it survives absorbing at resonance
energy from the high-frequency source [1,2]. In this way, the temperature of the fireball grows at a value for which the
electrons leave its nucleus. So, the potential of the nucleus self-adjusts to the value for which the FDL at its border
performs all operations required for its survival. The survival of the fireball as long as the external source of electro-
magnetic energy is present proves that a presumed slowly burning process of the materials initially injected in the
HCP is not the actual cause of its existence [3]. Perhaps, a mechanism as that above described works also when a
micron-sized transparent particle localized within a laser beam is heated by absorption of light. Acting as a nanometer
sizes engine, the particle does useful work extracting thermal energy from the environment through a mechanism defy-
ing the second law of thermodynamics [14].

4. The ball lightning

The fireballs created in laboratory, in air at normal pressure, are invoked in [3–6] to be replications, at a miniaturized
scale, of lightning balls. Agreeing with this opinion, we show in the following that the self-organization scenario pre-
sented in this paper substantiates the already published opinion [1] that explains the ball lightning as the result of a self-
organization process. Thus, considering recently published photographs of the phenomena occurring in the point where
a ball lightning emerges, it was revealed the presence of a whitish center with a blue surround and a luminous tail [15].
These pictures reveal, in our opinion, that the ball lightning emerges from a hot nucleus (the whitish center) surrounded
by a cold plasma mantle (the blue luminous tail). This suggests that some lightning flashes create, at other scales of
energy and dimensions, the same initial conditions like those at the origin of fireballs created in laboratory. The pres-
ence of a plasma mantle is the most important of them because it makes possible the initiation of a self-organization
process as that described in this paper. So, the most difficult problem related to the ball lightning phenomenon, namely,
the mechanism through which it remains coherent, relatively stable and luminous for duration that substantially sur-
passes the time span of its emergence could be explained. Other observational characteristics as for example the emis-
sion of light by lightning balls whose disintegration in the next vicinity of the observers does not give the sensation of
warmth [16] shows that, in spite of their origin in HCP, they continue to survive in a state of relatively small temper-
ature. This is explainable in the frame of the scenario of self-organization described in this paper taking into account
that, for surviving, the ball lightning exploits quantum processes as excitation of the atoms placed at its exterior side.
Returning to the ground state, the atoms emit ‘‘cold’’ incoherent light. Another characteristic explainable by self-orga-
nization is the very long living time of some lightning balls [9]. This can be related to the presence of a spherical FDL at
the ball lightning border that enables it to absorb at resonance energy from existing external sources of electromagnetic
energy [1]. This can prolong the existence of the plasma mantle and implicitly the lifetime of some lightning balls up to
some minutes [9]. Evidently, the most difficult part of such a model is to prove the presence of such external sources of
electromagnetic waves in nature. Their identification is important because their presence could explain one of the most
 Author's personal copy

1850 E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857

astonishing behaviors of the ball lightning, namely its ability to pass through windows without damaging them [1].
Other observational characteristics of the ball lightning could be related to the nature of the enclosed material. So, dif-
ferent effects related, for example, to the chemical, nuclear or other kind of reaction could eventually appear [1,9,16–18].
In the context of the ball lightning phenomenon, we mention that other unusual phenomena observed in the atmo-
sphere of the Earth could be explained considering for example the possibility that two objects flying with great speeds
in the atmosphere collide creating in this way a HCP able to evolve into a long living fireball through a mechanism as
that above described.

5. Self-organization and the laws of thermodynamics

Usually, for revealing the presence of self-organization phenomena in laboratory, a suitable sample of matter is dri-
ven at a critical distance from thermodynamic equilibrium by an external constraint [10]. In this ‘‘tensioned’’ state, an
infinitesimal change of the control parameters determines the development of an instability through which a self-orga-
nized complexity emerges. However, the non-linear process by which matter evolves, through instability, into a self-
organized state remains an unsolved problem of non-equilibrium physics [19]. The cause of this state of the art is
the lack of experimental results able to offer information concerning the mechanism through which such extremely
rapid local phenomena are initiated and develop. The informational content of the classic experiments cited in the lit-
erature as illustrative for self-organization [10] (Bénard cells, Belousov–Zhabotinski reaction but also other ones) does
not offer, in our opinion, sufficient information concerning the initial causes and the mechanism through which the mat-
ter spontaneously evolves, through instability, from a disordered state into an ordered one. In this context, the exper-
imental results discussed in this paper, initiated by a well-known external cause and explainable by a self-organization
scenario revealed by plasma experiments, emphasize the presence of three time steps. A first one is the time step in which
the non-equilibrium HCP created by very quick injection of energy evolves through a mechanism driven only by ther-
mal energy into a positive nucleus surrounded by a negative plasma mantle. The second step corresponds to instability
through which, exploiting collective effects of quantum processes, the thermal energy extracted from the plasma mantle
is directly converted into energy of the electric field located in a FDL. The duration of such an evolution is very short
because it depends on the internal acting positive feedback mechanism (self-enhancement of the production of positive
ions). In this time span, order in the form of an enclosed FDL that borders a nucleus enriched in positive ions is created
through a mechanism not explainable by the laws of thermodynamics. In the third time span, the survival of the fireball
is ensured by a FDL that continues to perform all the operations ‘‘learned’’ (recorded) during its emergence by self-
organization. The ‘‘machinery’’ by which the fireball is able to perform work exploits collective effects of quantum pro-
cesses as ionizations and excitations. Based on such machinery, thermal energy extracted from the plasma mantle is
transported into warmer plasma enriched in positive ions (the positive side of the FDL and the nucleus) maintaining
in this way a space charge arrangement whose ‘‘matrix’’ depends on the instruction (information) given by the environ-
ment. This means that the way by which the FDL performs labor includes a set of instructions encoded during the
emergence of the fireball by self-organization. The most important of these instructions (information) have their origin
in the thermal energy distribution function of the electrons in the plasma mantle. Since the ionized and excited atoms
return after a certain very short but finite time span to the ground state, the emergence of the order in the form of the
fireball is temporally separated from the creation of disorder in the surroundings by the emission of incoherent light.
As the vocabulary of thermodynamics, the emergence of order in the form of fireball through direct conversion of
thermal energy into electric field energy corresponds to the production of negative entropy. Returning after a certain
time span to the ground state, the atoms involved in the production of negative entropy emit incoherent light that, at
last, produces positive entropy in the surroundings. This means that between the ‘‘moment’’ when negative entropy is
produced and the ‘‘moment’’ when positive entropy appears in the surroundings there exists a certain time span. When
in this time span the thermal energy distribution function of the electrons in the plasma mantle is not changed, the FDL
at the border of the fireball performs labor based on machinery that works on a ‘‘program’’ whose instructions corre-
spond to the distribution function of the thermal energy of the electrons in the plasma mantle. The ensemble that con-
tains the fireball (nucleus enriched in positive ions bordered by a FDL) and the plasma mantle behaves as an open
system. However this opening is of a special kind one because it involves extraction of thermal energy from the plasma
mantle and its conversion into electric field energy through a mechanism exploiting collective effects of quantum pro-
cesses followed by emission of incoherent light in the surroundings. This means that thermal energy extracted from the
plasma mantle firstly creates order through a mechanism not explainable by the laws of thermodynamics and after that
this energy is ‘‘dissipated’’ in the surroundings also as thermal energy.
After its emergence by self-organization, the fireball survives as long as the initial content of matter (electrons) and
thermal energy in the plasma mantle surpasses a certain critical value. When the fireball emerges in an environment
 Author's personal copy

E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857 1851

where plasma is continuously produced by an external source, this machinery works as long as the surroundings is able
to supply with matter and thermal energy the self-assemblage process of the fireball [1,8]. Different from the causes that
maintain spatial ordered structures, for example crystals or vesicles under ambient Earth conditions, the ordered state
of the fireball emerged through a self-organization process in a plasma in thermodynamic equilibrium is sustained by a
FDL that continuously does work maintaining in this way constant its potential drop. In order to do this, the FDL
extracts electrons concomitant with their thermal energy from the surroundings. After conversion into electric field
energy, this energy is partly sequestered, in a spatial ordered ‘‘material’’ structure having the form of an enclosed
FDL and partly used to produce ionizations concomitant with a heating process of the nucleus. Since the evolution
of the HCP into a fireball takes place in absence of any external driving forces, it is evident that a succession of events
driven only by thermal energy is at its origin. This evolution takes place naturally into a coherent, stable and luminous
complexity. The evolution includes an instability by which order is created from disorder through a mechanism explain-
able by exploiting collective effects of quantum processes but not explainable by the known laws of thermodynamics.

6. The fireball as a system able to encrypt instructions

In the following, we will briefly describe an experiment able to illustrate the possibility to create a fireball that sur-
vives in an adequate environment for an unlimited duration and also to prove its ability to evolve encrypting instruc-
tions (information) offered by an environment in a controlled ‘‘evolution’’. The used experimental device is a diode
known as low-voltage arc, in which the plasma is created in a gas with a very small ionization potential (for example
cesium) by a heated cathode that emits electrons and simultaneously creates positive ions by contact ionization [20,21].
Subjecting the plasma from the diode to an external constraint by applying a positive voltage on the anode it is possible
to emphasize the emergence of four successive phases (cycles) of self-organization by gradually increasing this voltage.
Every of these emerges through a specific kind of instability that appears for certain critical values of the voltage of the
external dc power source [20,22]. Thus the first instability develops when, by increasing the voltage of the external dc
power supply, the electric field in front of the anode accelerates the electrons from the plasma at energies for which a
self-enhancement of the production of positive ions starts [8]. Simultaneously, a self-confined stable and luminous
nearly spherical luminous gaseous body attached to the anode, called anode glow, spontaneously emerges by self-orga-
nization. Revealing hysteresis [20,22], the anode glow proves its ability to survive also when the environmental param-
eters return to the values before its emergence. This and electrical probe measurements emphasize that the matrix of the
self-assembled anode glow contains a nucleus enriched in positive ions bordered by a FDL.
A very important phenomenon, revealed up yet only by experiments performed in low voltage arcs, is the ability of
the anode glow to survive also when the external constraint ceases to act, i.e., when the dc power supply is replaced by a
resistor [21]. In this state, the low voltage arc works as a converter of thermal energy into electric current. The gener-
ation of current in absence of an external dc power source evidently implies the presence of an internal source of energy
able to maintain local potential drops in which electrons are accelerated so that they arrive the surface of the anode.
Such a potential drop, sustained by the single available energy, namely the thermal energy, is the electric double layer
located at the border of the anode glow created before the replacing of the external dc power supply by the resistor.
Additional potential drops appear in the contact regions between the plasma and the electrodes (contact potentials).
Taking into account that the potential at the positive side of the double layer is greater than the potential of the anode,
we consider that the essential role in the conversion of thermal energy into current is played by this double layer that,
acting as a FDL, generates current [8]. The other potential drops that appear between the plasma and the electrodes,
also driven by thermal energy, only ‘‘help’’ the generation of the current. This means that the ability of the low voltage
arc to convert directly thermal energy into current is related to a FDL that, based on a mechanism ‘‘learned’’ during its
emergence by self-organization, performs labor by exploiting collective effects of quantum processes, fact proved by
emission of light. In this way, thermal energy extracted from the surrounding plasma is converted into energy located
in the electric field of the bi-potential structure at the border of the anode glow. This mechanism involves the sustenance
of a critical ionization rate by a part of the electrons extracted from the surrounding plasma [8]. All other electrons
extracted from the plasma traverse the potential drop of the FDL reaching the surface of the anode in spite of the decel-
erating electric field located between the positive side of the FDL and the anode. So, the FDL sustains a potential drop
that, accelerating electrons extracted from the surrounding plasma, drives a current that flows through the resistor con-
nected between anode and cathode. The behavior of the low voltage arc as a converter of thermal energy into current is
mainly related to the very low ionization potential of the gas and a certain density of the neutrals and electrons, and the
shape of electrons’ energy distribution function [8].
Possessing a special kind of memory revealed by hysteresis [8], the anode glow emphasizes a certain robustness with
respect to random fluctuations of the environmental parameters. This signifies that the anode glow has encrypted a code
 Author's personal copy

1852 E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857

of instructions (information) by which the FDL at its border ensures its further survival also when the environmental
conditions are varied in certain limits by changing the voltage applied on the anode. Concomitant with these variations,
the temperature of the electrons and their thermal energy distribution function are also changing [21]. So, by increasing
the voltage delivered by the external dc power supply, the ‘‘environmental’’ conditions change. Owing to the afore men-
tioned robustness, the anode glow remains in the stable state up to the moment when the voltage of the external power
supply reaches a second critical value for which it becomes again ‘‘sensible’’ to fluctuations of the environmental con-
ditions [20–22]. This sensibility is revealed by the spontaneous transition of the anode glow into a dynamical state in
which FDLs periodically peel off and reform at its border. This takes place when, by increasing the voltage of the
dc power supply (or by increasing only the temperature of the cathode) the concentration of the electrons and implicitly
their energy distribution function reach those critical values/shape for which random phenomena determine the tran-
sition of the anode glow into a dynamical state more adequate to the new environmental conditions. This transition is
initiated by fluctuations that determine the departure of the FDL from the border of the anode glow. In this moving
phase, the FDL ensures its existence like a soliton by collecting electrons from the plasma that is running through.
Immediately after the transition of the FDL into a moving phase, a new bi-potential structure emerges in the region
where the previous FDL has detached from. The self-assemblage of a new FDL in that region involves accumulation
of electrons at the low potential side of the new anode glow and concomitant diminution of the electric field created by
its positive nucleus. As a consequence, the electrons that produce and those resulting after ionization at the positive side
of the moving FDL are not collected by the anode so that the FDL de-aggregates at a certain distance from the anode.
After this de-aggregation, a bunch of electrons reach the region where the bi-potential structure is in a forming phase
increasing the ionization rate just at the value for which the new FDL, meantime self-assembled at the border of the
anode glow, peels off. So, moving FDLs peel off from the border of the anode glow through an internal acting positive
feedback mechanism. In this dynamical state, the survival of the anode glow comprises two sequences: one in which
matter and energy located in the FDL is transported in the surroundings, and one in which matter and energy from
the surrounding plasma is stored in a new FDL. So, for surviving under the new environmental conditions, the anode
glow sustains a rhythmic exchange of matter and thermal energy with the surrounding plasma. In this way, changing
the environmental conditions, the anode glow spontaneously transits, through a new kind of instability, into a more
advanced state of self-organization characterized by spatiotemporal order. Because this transition takes place when
the voltage of the dc power supply reaches a higher critical value, it results that a more advanced self-organized state
of the anode glow emerges, through a new kind of instability, when the number of electrons and their energy distribu-
tion function correspond to certain new threshold value/shape. This new state appears spontaneously (stepwise) when
in the plasma a new ‘‘catalyst’’ (number of electrons and new energy distribution functions) is able to maintain the
production rate of positive ions at that critical value for which two FDLs, one in a moving phase and another one
in a self-assemblage phase, coexist in the same time. So, by adaptation to the new environmental conditions created
by increasing the voltage of the dc power supply at a critical value, the anode glow reveals a new state of self-organi-
zation (spatiotemporal one) that involves a rhythmic exchange of matter and thermal energy with the surrounding
plasma [23,24].
The spatiotemporal (dynamical) state of self-organization is maintained also when the low voltage arc works as a
converter of thermal energy into electric field in the absence of the external power supply. This emphasizes that the
anode glow works as a circuit element that, possessing a code encrypted in its memory, is able to perform labor for
generating oscillations. Generating oscillations in absence of an external dc power source, the low voltage arc behaves
similar to solid circuit elements (semiconductors) [25] but with an essential difference: instead to use electric energy
extracted from an external power source, it generates ‘‘oscillations’’ extracting thermal energy from the surrounding
plasma.
The most interesting phenomenon emphasized in the low-voltage arc is observed when, by further increasing the
voltage of the dc power supply, the thermal energy of electrons and their distribution function reach a third threshold
value/shape for which, through a new kind of instability, the anode glow detaches spontaneously from the anode
transiting into a free floating state dubbed ball-of-fire [21]. In this state, the FDL at its border performs labor converting
in this way thermal energy extracted from the surrounding plasma into electric field energy and concomitant into ther-
mal energy in the nucleus. So, the positive potential of the nucleus remains constant owing to the difference between the
thermal diffusivity of the positive ions and electrons. A new very small increase of the voltage of the dc power supply
determines the spontaneous transition of the ball-of-fire into a dynamical state in which FDLs periodically peel off and
self-assembly at its border. Running through the surrounding plasma, the mowing FDLs perform labor for accelerating
electrons extracted from the plasma. Reaching the nucleus they produce, besides ionizations, a heating process. Con-
sequently, by the afore-mentioned mechanism, the potential of the nucleus is maintained positive also when no potential
difference is applied between the cathode and anode. For performing this labor the FDLs exploit collective effects of
quantum processes whose presence is revealed by emission of incoherent light. In this way thermal energy extracted
 Author's personal copy

E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857 1853

from the plasma is directly converted into electric field energy, fact that explains the coherence and dynamical state of
the ball-of-fire. The mechanism through which this labor is performed was ‘‘learned’’ by the ball-of-fire during its tran-
sition through four phases of self-organization.
The above briefly described succession of events proves that, after a series of non-linear physical processes (instabil-
ities), the anode glow stepwise transits to more and more self-organized states. The transition involves bi-stable pro-
cesses that appear when the number of the electrons and their thermal energy distribution function (that act as
catalyst) correspond to the critical states for which the FDL becomes able to perform new operations. Decreasing
the voltage of the dc power supply, the ball-of fire returns, after revealing specific hysteresis phenomena [20–22], to
the dynamical state of the anode glow and, continuing to decrease the voltage of the dc power supply, it disrupts
for a voltage smaller than the voltage at which it has emerged by self-organization.
The evolution of the anode glow into the ball-of-fire shows that, through different kinds of instabilities initiated
when the above-mentioned catalysts reach certain threshold values, the self-organized state of the ball-of-fire changes
stepwise, i.e., through bi-stable states. Such a change of the self-organized states reveals, in our opinion, the presence of
a succession of the so-called decision nodes [26], every of them corresponding to a bi-stable state in which a specific
program of operations is encoded during the instability. This program encrypted as a code in the matrix and in the
working regime of the FDL corresponds to a certain number of electrons and their quasi-maxwellian energy distribu-
tion function. The thermal energy of these electrons governs the mechanism by which the FDL performs labor.
Endowed with a code, the ball-of-fire acts as a complexity that adapts its working regime to the environmental condi-
tions so that the performed labor to be minimum (principle of minimum action). The adaptation appears stepwise when
a specific ‘‘catalyst’’ becomes able to initiate new non-linear (bi-stable) phenomena. After every bi-stability (decision
node) the fireball reveals a new quality by which it is able to perform operations corresponding to a new more advanced
state of self-organization.
It is important that each of this set of operation modes involves exploitation of collective effects of quantum pro-
cesses, fact emphasized by emission of light. In the dynamical state, this light emission takes place periodically. This
proves the ability to encode additional information offered by the surroundings because the shape (number of harmon-
ics) of the generated ‘‘oscillations’’ depends on the number of electrons and their thermal energy distribution function.
Recording instructions (information), the ball-of-fire acts as an ‘‘intelligent’’ self-organized complexity that, possessing
a proper memory based on a mechanism not explainable by the known laws of thermodynamics, converts directly ther-
mal energy extracted from the environment into electric field energy [8].
The above-described experimental results have been obtained in plasma created by ionization of gases at relatively
small gas pressure (tens of mbar) where the fireballs have sizes in the order of cm. However, as also has been proved by
plasma experiments, fireballs with sizes in the ranges of micro/nanometers emerge in so called microdischarges in gases
at pressures more appropriate to normal one. So, for example [27], by applying a very short ac current square wave
(1.5 ls, 240 V) on the anode of a so-called surface dielectric barrier discharge, produced in a mixture of gases (argon
93% and helium 7%) at total pressure of 500 mbar, it was evidenced a succession of phenomena similar to those
observed in a low voltage arc when the voltage of the anode is square-wise increased at that critical value for which
the ball-of-fire emerges. Under such conditions, a coherent luminous body emerges at the anode of the dielectric barrier
discharge. It evolves into a relatively long living mini-ball-of fire. The intensity of the emitted light reaches a maximum
in a time span between 2855 ns and 2865 ns and it disrupts after 4000 ns. Other experiments [28–30] revealed that fire-
balls are able to replicate forming a succession of concentric fireballs but also to multiply by division forming networks
of fireballs at the surface of the anode of a plasma diode. Every replication involves transitions of the plasma diode
through bi-stable processes by which it becomes able to perform new functions [30]. One of the most astonishing behav-
ior of mini-fireballs created in microdischarges is their ability to replicate after collisions between two previously created
fireballs [31].

7. Self-organization and the origin of life

The above briefly presented experimental results reveal two facts: (i) An electrical spark is able to initiate in ambient
air a self-organization process finished with the emergence of an entity consisting of an enclosed FDL bordered by a
plasma mantle. This is an entity able to maintain separate two physically different environments, a nucleus enriched
in positive ions from plasma enriched in electrons, by a mechanism ‘‘learned’’ (encoded) during its emergence by
self-organization. (ii) When the enclosed FDL is created in plasma in evolution, a succession of functionally correlated
events determines its further evolution by encoding new instructions (information) offered by the environment. These
instructions (information) are encoded stepwise always when the number of electrons and their thermal energy distri-
bution function reach critical values/shapes. Every of these events involves a succession of phenomena that determines
 Author's personal copy

1854 E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857

the physical matrix (architecture) of the enclosed FDL and implicitly its dynamics. Based on this experimental result we
present, in the following, a new conceptual model able in our opinion to explain how Nature creates complexities with
structures and behaviours proper to give rise to current life. Essential in this conceptual model is that the enclosed FDL
works as a special kind of machine that performs operations equivalent to those performed by a cell membrane. This
machine does work exploiting collective effects of quantum processes by which thermal energy extracted from the sur-
roundings is converted into electric field energy through a mechanism not explainable by the known laws of thermo-
dynamics. Evidently, for surviving under abiotic Earth conditions, the enclosed FDL must be initially created by a
spark in an environment able to permanently supply with matter (electrons) and thermal energy the self-assemblage
process of the FDL. Such initial environmental conditions (similar to those created in the low voltage arc) could be
potentially present only locally at the surface of the abiotic Earth. Placed in such an environment, the enclosed
FDL does work based on the mechanism ‘‘learned’’ during its emergence by self-organization. The operations per-
formed by the FDL are the following: (i) selective exchange of matter and energy between the nucleus and the surround-
ings; (ii) capture, transduction, store and call up energy; (iii) self-monitoring and repairing its constantly deteriorating
physical matrix; (iv) replication by division and multiplication after ‘‘interaction’’ of two enclosures. Our measurements
performed in plasma diodes suggest that the temperature inside the nucleus is usually in the order of some tens of
Celsius degrees.
In the following, we presume that a complexity bordered by a FDL with sizes in the range of micro/nanometers
revealing the above listed qualities, could emerge by a self-organization process initiated by an electric spark when
at the surface of the Earth there were water, volatiles and organic molecules, etc. For surviving in such a ‘‘chemical
world’’ that initially did not contain significant amounts of O2 the enclosed FDL performs work extracting thermal
energy from the environment and converting it into electric field energy. Having sizes in the range of micro/nanometers,
this enclosure acts as a cavity able to absorb at resonance electromagnetic energy (photons) emitted by the Sun. Such a
possibility was suggested by experimental results presented in [14]. These proved that an enclosure created in a fluid by
agglomeration of micron-sizes transparent particles by a laser trapping technique acts as an ‘‘engine’’ that does useful
work for ensuring its proper existence. This takes place through a mechanism defying the second law of
thermodynamics.
Presuming that the amount of energy of the electric spark was sufficient to create an enclosed FDL in an autono-
mous dynamical state (similar to the ball-of-fire above described), the thermal energy extracted from the environment is
directly converted into electric field energy of mowing FDLs. This means that, at last, thermal energy is converted into
mechanical energy. So, a selective exchange of matter and energy periodically takes place between the nucleus and the
surroundings. Simultaneously, a mean potential drop is maintained between the nucleus of the gaseous enclosure and
the surroundings. Consequently, different chemical substances are selectively located inside the nucleus and simulta-
neously accumulated at the two borders of the enclosed FDL. Since this accumulation takes place also in time spans
when photons emitted by the Sun are captured at resonance, the further evolution of the enclosed FDL potentially
involves photosynthesis. This means that, performing labor, the FDL produces by photosynthesis molecular oxygen
that changes the environmental conditions in which the enclosed FDL survives. Under such circumstances, the further
evolution of the enclosed FDL (placed in a ‘‘soup’’ formed by chemical reacting substances and photons) towards a
more advanced state of self-organization could be explained presuming that a rigid enclosure, that incorporates the
FDL, self-assemblies. The single possibility to ensure the continuity of the ‘‘living’’ process under such circumstances
is the self-assemblage of channels in the rigid membrane. This means that the initial gaseous FDL divides in a great
number of minuscule FDLs every of them encoded with a program ‘‘learned’’ by self-organization in the gaseous state.
This program remains encoded in the minuscule FDLs also when the environmental conditions become a ‘‘soup’’ of
different substances. In this more advanced state, every minuscule FDL sustains a proper dynamics by which an
exchange of matter and energy takes place between the nucleus and the surroundings. So, different kinds of chemicals
are accumulated in the nucleus but also at the border of the enclosed FDL. Consequently, fundamental problems as the
appearance of biochemical assemblies (giant polymers self-assembled by proteins and nucleic acids synthesis) become
conceptually explainable by considering at the origin of the complexity bordered by a FDL a scenario of self-organi-
zation as described in this paper. This means that, once emerged by a self-organization process initially involving non-
linear physical processes, the enclosed FDL possesses a proper memory that allows it to encode instructions
(information). Possessing this memory, the enclosed FDL will be able to improve its further self-organized state when
conditions able to initiate nonlinear chemical processes that will change the architecture and implicitly the working
regime of the enclosed FDL appear in the environment. Beginning from this moment, a network of ordered structures
(FDLs) self-assembly inside and at the border of the enclosed FDL, every of them improving the ‘‘machinery’’ by which
these structures work. This means that an algorithm of instructions is encoded in the form of decision nodes during
instabilities initiated when conditions for initiating non-linear chemical processes inside and at the border of the com-
plexity appear in an environment in evolution as that present under early Earth. Such a complexity whose evolution
 Author's personal copy

E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857 1855

involves non-linear chemical processes is usually dubbed protocell. After stepwise evolution, the protocell will be able to
perform new operations more approached to those performed by the contemporary cell. This means that the Nature is
able to create networks of structural elements more advanced than that manufactured by nanotechnology with the aim
to be used as multi-functional circuit elements. As afore mentioned, the news of the ‘‘technology’’ used by Nature con-
sists in the fact that the machinery of the protocell is based on a network of FDLs every of them performing labor using
thermal energy extracted from the surroundings. This takes place exploiting collective effects of quantum processes, fact
emphasized by emission of radiation (electromagnetic) energy. Through this mechanism, thermal energy extracted from
the environment is directly converted into energy of well-located electric fields that, as a whole, determine the architec-
ture (electric matrix) and dynamics of the protocell. Acting as converter of thermal energy into electric current, the FDL
potentially explains the electrical activity emphasized by every living organism.
For evolving, the protocell transits stepwise through instabilities initiated when new chemicals appear in the envi-
ronment. The chemicals transported in its nucleus or attached at its border determine a non-linear chemical reaction
by which the working regime of its machinery is optimized by adaptation to the new environmental conditions. These
non-linear chemical processes act as decision nodes because every of them changes the mechanism by which thermal
energy is directly converted into electric field energy. However, as recently remarked, a succession of decision nodes,
every of them leading to new functions, could not appear if deterministic cause-and-effect laws act [32]. This is because
‘‘decisions’’ are not possible under such conditions. Such a restriction does not act when a self-organization process as
that described in this paper governs the evolution of the protocell. Thus, between the cause of order creation (the
appearance of a certain thermal energy distribution function of the electrons that acts as a catalyst) and its effect
(the increase of disorder in the surroundings after emission of incoherent light) there exists a certain time span. This
time span that separates temporally the cause from its effect is maintained as long as the protocell survives. This empha-
sizes that the working regime of the machinery corresponding to a certain self-organized state can be changed by
intercalation of a new instability. So, the evolution of the protocell is determined by the ‘‘chance’’ that in the above-
mentioned time span, a nonlinear chemical process that optimizes its self-organization state is intercalated. Potentially,
such nonlinear chemical processes are initiated when the concentration of a certain substance in the nucleus or at the
border of the protocell reaches the critical value for which, by appearance of enzymes, such non-linear phenomena
develop. In this way, by selective exchange of information between the protocell and an environment in evolution,
its ‘‘architecture’’ and implicitly the working regime of its machinery is optimized stepwise by adaptation. This takes
place through a succession of instabilities initiated by instructions (information) offered by the environment in evolution
when the thermal energy distribution of the electrons are so changed that the complexity transits spontaneously from an
organized state towards a better organized state. These bi-stable states form a chain of events (decision nodes) that, as a
whole, represents the algorithm by which an evolution of the protocell into the contemporary cell is potentially
explainable.
The presence of molecular oxygen and hydrogen in the environment potentially explains an additional heating mech-
anism of the nucleus of the protocell and in this way the existence of a mechanism able to maintain constant its positive
potential. Consequently, the survival and further evolution of the protocell could be explained by using, besides thermal
energy, also chemical energy. However, using for its survival also energy offered by oxidizable chemicals, the protocell
suffers an ageing process that is finished with its dead. So, for making possible such an evolution, the algorithm by
which the protocell survives at a certain ‘‘moment’’ of its evolution must be transmitted, by inheritance, to a new pro-
tocell that could appear, for example, by replication. Thus, because the transition from one organized into another bet-
ter organized state needs a certain time span, there exists the chance to change the arrow of evolution, i.e., the
‘‘replicant’’ daughter protocell survives by a machinery quite different from that of the parent protocell at the time
of its own ‘‘conception’’. In this context it is perhaps interesting to remind that there exist plasma experiments proving
that fireball is able to replicate by division or multiply after ‘‘collisions’’ between two fireballs [28–31].

8. Conclusions

Based on new experimental results, we describe in this paper a new scenario of self-organization by considering well-
explainable phenomena at its origin. Such phenomena, initiated and driven only by thermal energy initially injected in a
HCP in non-equilibrium evolve naturally, i.e., in absence of any external driving forces, from a disordered state (the
HCP) into an ordered one (the fireball). After the emergence of the fireball by a mechanism not explainable by the laws
of thermodynamics, its further survival is ensured by a FDL that performs labour exploiting collective effects of quan-
tum processes. By this mechanism thermal energy extracted from its surroundings (the plasma mantle) is partly con-
verted into electric field energy and partly used to produce ionizations and concomitant a heating process of the
nucleus. In this way, the fireball survives for durations that substantially surpass the time span in which the FDL
 Author's personal copy

1856 E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857

has emerged by self-organization. Based on such a mechanism, we underlay our already expressed opinion [1] that has
considered the ball lightning as the result of a self-organization process.
Presuming that electric sparks produced under abiotic Earth conditions initiate the emergence of a fireball with sizes
in the range of micro/nanometers, we proposed to consider it as a minimal cell [7] that, revealing all qualities by which
life is operationally defined, lives in a so-called ‘‘physical world’’. In our opinion, such a minimal cell reveals that a spe-
cial kind of life, usually dubbed ‘‘plasma life’’, could exist in absence of bio-chemical reactions [33].
Emerged from a HCP created by an electrical spark in a more advanced phase of the early Earth, when water and
chemical reactive substances have appeared at its surface, the minimal cell was situated in an environment where,
involving absorption of energy from the Sun, its further evolution takes place through a chain of non-linear chemical
processes. The evolution was possible because of the very short time span in which the non-linear chemical process,
potentially initiated by the appearance of enzymes, took place. The shortness of these non-linear chemical processes
created the possibility to intercalate them in the time span in which the minimal cell transits to a new self-organized
state. So it appeared the ‘‘chance’’ that a certain non-linear chemical process change the arrow of the evolution into
a new self-organization state better adapted to the environmental conditions. In this way, by instructions (information)
offered by an environment in evolution as that on the early Earth, the minimal cell encodes an algorithm in the form of
a chain of decision nodes that are not forced by cause-and-effect necessity. Considering such a necessity, it was recently
expressed the opinion that the constraints of deterministic laws are such that the origin of life may be never understood
[32]. This opinion is evidently correct as long as between the cause and its effect a direct (deterministic) relationship
exists. However, as proved by the experimental results presented in this paper, such a deterministic connection does
not exist between the cause that produces order (negative entropy during the emergence and survival of the fireball)
and its effect (the production of positive entropy in the surroundings).
Based on physical processes not explainable by the known laws of the contemporary thermodynamics, the Nature
creates complexities able to survive following the instructions (information) encoded in context with the characteristics
of a given state of the environment. Since these instructions (information) are changed by an environment itself in evo-
lution, as that of the abiotic Earth, the premise for a further evolution of the protocell in a chemical world is potentially
possible. Such an evolution, based on a succession of self-organized states emerged stepwise through non deterministic
events by adaptation to the changes of the environmental conditions, is formally similar to that described in [34]. As it
was recently remarked, Earth organisms feel thermal energy and, in suitable environments, may have gained the capa-
bility to use it as energy source [35]. As also known, living systems work with mesoscopic sizes functional elements that
perform labor extracting thermal energy from the surroundings through a mechanism exploiting quantum processes
[36].
In the most generalized terms, the emergence of the fireball bordered by a FDL is a fractal process, i.e., a limit of a
succession of nonlinear processes (the self-assemblage of the elementary dipoles) that, by a mechanism defying the sec-
ond law of thermodynamics becomes very complex self-organized ‘‘machinery’’. Its evolution, controlled by random
phenomena taking place in the environment, involves a chain of stepwise produced events (decision nodes) during of
which the complexity of the system increases. So, the fractal process continues to act potentially explaining why, under
the environmental conditions on the Earth during its history, matter evolved naturally from a non living state to a living
one.
The emergence, by self-organization, of the complexity bordered by a FDL, its behavior as a dynamical nonlinear
system and its stepwise evolution in a suitable environment are phenomena whose theoretical description needs a new
theoretical concept. A concept appropriate to explain such phenomena based essentially on spontaneous self-organiza-
tion, nonlinear dynamics, chaos and fractals was elaborated by El Naschie [37–39]. This concept offers a new method-
ology whose applications in various fields of science [40] demonstrate its quality to become general valid. In this
context, the phenomenological model of self-organization described in this paper potentially enlarges the application
aria of this fruitful theory on phenomena as, for example, that investigated by the thermodynamics of small systems
but also on phenomena hitherto considered enigmas of science as the ball lightning and the origin of life.

References

[1] Sanduloviciu M, Lozneanu E. The ball lightning as a self-organization phenomenon. J Geophys Res Atmos 2000;105:4719–27.
[2] Sanduloviciu M. Pulsatory plasmoids formed in high frequency electric fields. Plasma Phys Control Fus 1987;29:1687–94.
[3] Dikhtyar V, Jerby E. Fireball ejection from a molten hot spot in air by localized microwaves. Phys Rev Lett 2006;96:045002–4.
[4] Swarup A. Physicists create great balls of fire. <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9293&feeId=online> (06.06.2006).
[5] Sakawa Y, Sugiyama K, Tanabe T, More R. Fireball generation in a water discharge. Plasma and Fusion Research 2006;1:039.
<http://www.jspf.or.jp/PFR/PFR_articles/pfr2006_01/pfr2006_01-39>.
 Author's personal copy

E. Lozneanu, M. Sanduloviciu / Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 40 (2009) 1845–1857 1857

[6] Alexeff I, Parameswaran MG, Grace M. An observation of synthetic ball lightning. IEEE Trans Plasma Sci 2005;33:498–9.
[7] Lozneanu E, Sanduloviciu M. Minimal-cell system created in laboratory by self-organization. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals
2003;18:335–43.
[8] Lozneanu E, Sanduloviciu M. Self-organization scenario acting as physical basis of intelligent complex systems created in
laboratory. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 2006;30:125–32.
[9] Roth JR. Ball lightning: what nature is trying to tell the plasma research community. Fusion Technol 1995;27:255–70.
[10] Nicolis G. Physics of far-from equilibrium systems and self-organization. In: Davies PA, editor. The new physics. Cambridge
University Press; 1989. p. 316–47.
[11] Lozneanu E, Popescu V, Sanduloviciu M. Negative differential resistance related to self-organization phenomena in a dc gas
discharge. J Appl Phys 2002;92:195–9.
[12] Gyergyek T, Cercek M, Schrittwieser R, Ionita C. Experimental study of the creation of a fire-rod. I. Temporal development of the
electron energy distribution function. Contrib Plasma Phys 2002;42:508–25.
[13] Barthélemy O, Margot J, Chaker M. Characterization of the expansion of an aluminium laser-induced plasma in ambient air by
fast photography. IEEE Trans Plasma Sci 2005;33:76–7.
[14] Wang GM, Sevick SM, Mittag E, Searles DJ, Evans DJ. Experimental demonstration of violation of the second low of
thermodynamics for small systems and short times scales. Phys Rev Lett 2002;89:050601-1–1-4.
[15] Hubler G. K. Fluff balls of fire. Nature 2000;403:487–8.
[16] Smirnov BM. The properties and the nature of the ball lightnung. Phys Rep (Rev Sect Phys Lett ) 1987;152:177–226.
[17] Turner DJ. The structure and stability of ball lightning. Phyl Trans R Soc Lond 1994;347:83–111.
[18] Stenhoff M. Ball lightning. An unsolved problem of atmospheric physics. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publisher; 1999.
[19] Gollub JP, Langer JS. Pattern formation in nonequilibrium physics. Rev Mod Phys Century 1999;71:S396–403.
[20] Kiryuskchenko AM, Lebedev MA. Low voltage arc in cesium vapor 1. Formation of a spherical plasmoid. Sov Phys-Tech Phys
1971;16:924–7.
[21] Popescu A, Niculescu ND, Gallin E, Musa G. The ignited mode of caesium thermionic diode I. Diffused electronic and ionic
current through a grid type anode. Rev Roum Phys 1972;17:47–55.
[22] Sanduloviciu M, Lozneanu E, Leu G. Spontaneous formation of ordered spatio-temporal structures in laboratory and nature. In:
Senday S, editor. Plasma Forum. Double layers. Singapore: World Scientific; 1997. p. 4001–6.
[23] Alexandroiei D, Sanduloviciu M. Dynamics of double layers formed in the transition regions between two negative plasma glows.
Phys Lett A 1987;122:173–7.
[24] Sanduloviciu M, Lozneanu E, Popescu S. On the physical basis of pattern formation in nonlinear systems. Chaos, Solitons &
Fractals 2003;17:183–8.
[25] Lozneanu E, Popesu S, Sanduloviciu M. Plasma experiments with relevance for the nonlinear behavior of semiconductors. Chaos,
Solitons & Fractals 2003;17:243–8.
[26] Abel DL, Trevors JT. Three subsets of sequence complexity and their relevance to biopolymeric information. Theoretical biology
and medical modelling. <http://www.tbiomed.com/content/2/1/29>.
[27] Mark TJ, Bowden D, Wagenaars E, Kroesen GM. Emission imaging of PDF-like microdischarge. IEEE Trans Plasma Sci
2005;33:506–7.
[28] Aflori M, Amarandei G, Ivan LM, Dimitriu DG, Sanduloviciu M. Experimental observation of multiple double layers structures
in plasma I: Concentric multiple double layers. IEEE Trans Plasma Sci 2005;33:542–3.
[29] Ivan LM, Amarandei G, Aflori M, Mihai Plugaru M, Gaman C, Dimitriu DG, et al. Experimental observation of multiples
double layers II: Nonconcentric double layers. IEEE Trans Plasma Sci 2005;33:544–5.
[30] Sanduloviciu M, Dimitriu DG, Ivan LM, Aflory M, Furtuna C, Popescu S, et al. Self-organization scenario relevant for
nanoscale science and technology. J Optoelectr Adv Mater 2005;7:845–51.
[31] Astrov YA, Purvins HG. Plasma spots in a gas discharge system: birth, scattering and formation of molecules. Phys Lett A
2001;283:349–54.
[32] Trevors JT, Abel DL. Chance and necessity do not explain the origin of life. Cell Biol Int 2004;28:729–39.
[33] Cohen D. Plasma blobs hint at new form of life. New Sci 2003;179(2413):16–7.
[34] Gabore Liane M. Self-other organization: why early life did not evolve through natural selection. J Theoret Biol 2006;241:443–50.
[35] Muller Anthonie, Schulze-Makuch D. Thermal energy and the origin of life. Origins Life Evol Biosphere 2006;36:177–89.
[36] Hong FT. Bacteriohodopsin as an intelligent material <www.wxm/21R-58-Cached-Similar-Pages>.
[37] El Naschie MS. Complex vacuum fluctuations as a chaotic ‘‘limit’’ set of any Kleinian group transformation and the mass
spectrum of high energy particle physics via spontaneous self-organization. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 2003;17:631–8.
[38] El Naschie MS. The VAK of fluctuations, Spontaneous self-organization and complexity theory interpretation of high energy
particle physics and the mass spectrum. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 2003;17:401–20.
[39] El Naschie MS. The concept of E infinity: An elementary introduction to the Cantorian fractal theory of quantum physics. Chaos,
Solitons & Fractals 2004;22:495–511.
[40] El Naschie MS. A revive of applications and results of E-infinity theory. Int J Nonlinear Sci Numer Simul 2007;8(1):11–20.