Archive · Bibliography · REF-001 · REV B

Bibliography

The literature the program reads.

REF-001 · REV B, 30 September 2026 · supersedes REV A, "References" (2025) · grouped by subject · citations are to published work by named authors and institutions; none implies endorsement of Lorentz Aerospace

Every quantitative statement on this site should trace to a derivation on the page or to one of these sources. The list is short on purpose. REV A mixed plasma references with lunar-logistics studies, weapons handbooks and general physics texts that no page used; REV B keeps the works the program actually draws on, and adds the discharge, momentum-theory and simulation literature that the XR-1 test program depends on. The dated history of the problem is on the homepage, under Lineage.

Plasma physics

Scales, collisions and the language of the rest of the library.

  1. F. F. Chen, Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 2nd ed. Plenum, 1984.
  2. R. J. Goldston and P. H. Rutherford, Introduction to Plasma Physics. Institute of Physics Publishing, 1995.
  3. J. A. Bittencourt, Fundamentals of Plasma Physics, 3rd ed. Springer, 2004.
  4. J. D. Huba, NRL Plasma Formulary. US Naval Research Laboratory.
  5. P. Debye and E. Hückel, "Zur Theorie der Elektrolyte," Physikalische Zeitschrift 24, 185–206 (1923).

Magnetohydrodynamics and magneto-aerodynamics

The force law, its dimensionless groups, and seventy years of attempts to apply it to flowing gas.

  1. H. Alfvén, "Existence of electromagnetic-hydrodynamic waves," Nature 150, 405–406 (1942). doi:10.1038/150405d0
  2. J. Hartmann, "Hg-Dynamics I," Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Math.-fys. Meddelelser 15(6) (1937).
  3. I. B. Bernstein, E. A. Frieman, M. D. Kruskal and R. M. Kulsrud, "An energy principle for hydromagnetic stability problems," Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 244, 17–40 (1958). doi:10.1098/rspa.1958.0023
  4. J. P. Freidberg, Ideal Magnetohydrodynamics. Plenum, 1987.
  5. P. A. Davidson, An Introduction to Magnetohydrodynamics. Cambridge University Press, 2001. The low-magnetic-Reynolds-number treatment used in XR1-TR-003.
  6. G. W. Sutton and A. Sherman, Engineering Magnetohydrodynamics. McGraw-Hill, 1965.
  7. R. J. Rosa, Magnetohydrodynamic Energy Conversion. McGraw-Hill, 1968.
  8. E. L. Resler and W. R. Sears, "The prospects for magneto-aerodynamics," Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences 25, 235 (1958).
  9. R. W. Ziemer, "Experimental investigation in magneto-aerodynamics," ARS Journal 29(9), 642 (1959).
  10. S. O. Macheret, M. N. Shneider and R. B. Miles, AIAA Paper 99-4800 (1999): the ionization cost of cold-air MHD flow control.
  11. NASA Langley MHD accelerator research, historical review: NASA TP-2003-212285. Avco Everett Mark V and MHD power generation: NASA TP-2331.

Gas discharges and air chemistry

How air is made to conduct, and how quickly it stops.

  1. Yu. P. Raizer, Gas Discharge Physics. Springer, 1991.
  2. M. A. Lieberman and A. J. Lichtenberg, Principles of Plasma Discharges and Materials Processing, 2nd ed. Wiley, 2005.
  3. A. Fridman, Plasma Chemistry. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  4. Ya. B. Zel'dovich and Yu. P. Raizer, Physics of Shock Waves and High-Temperature Hydrodynamic Phenomena. Academic Press, 1966–67.
  5. ICRU Report 90, Key Data for Ionizing-Radiation Dosimetry (2016): the mean energy per ion pair in dry air, 33.97 eV.
  6. Three-body electron attachment to oxygen: IAEA INIS record. Oxygen ionization energy: NIST Chemistry WebBook.

Electric propulsion and measured neighbours

Machines that already move gas with electromagnetic force, and what they measured.

  1. R. G. Jahn, Physics of Electric Propulsion. McGraw-Hill, 1968.
  2. D. M. Goebel and I. Katz, Fundamentals of Electric Propulsion: Ion and Hall Thrusters. JPL Space Science and Technology Series, Wiley, 2008.
  3. H. Xu, Y. He, K. L. Strobel, C. K. Gilmore, S. P. Kelley, C. C. Hennick, T. Sebastian, M. R. Woolston, D. J. Perreault and S. R. H. Barrett, "Flight of an aeroplane with solid-state propulsion," Nature 563, 532–535 (2018). doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0707-9
  4. T. C. Corke, C. L. Enloe and S. P. Wilkinson, "Dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators for flow control," Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 42, 505–529 (2010).
  5. Yamato-1 superconducting MHD ship trials, 1992: OSTI 135352.
  6. Lithium-fed magnetoplasmadynamic thruster test, JPL, Princeton and NASA Glenn: NASA, 2026.

Momentum theory

The benchmark every actuator is measured against.

  1. W. J. M. Rankine, "On the mechanical principles of the action of propellers," Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects 6, 13–39 (1865).
  2. J. G. Leishman, Principles of Helicopter Aerodynamics, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Magnets, sources and power

The enabling hardware that did not exist in 1967.

  1. M. N. Wilson, Superconducting Magnets. Oxford University Press, 1983.
  2. M. K. Wu, J. R. Ashburn, C. J. Torng et al., "Superconductivity at 93 K in a new mixed-phase Y-Ba-Cu-O compound system at ambient pressure," Physical Review Letters 58, 908 (1987).
  3. 20 T large-bore REBCO magnet test, MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, 2021: MIT Energy Initiative statement.
  4. G. S. Nusinovich, M. K. A. Thumm and M. I. Petelin, "The gyrotron at 50," Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves 35, 325 (2014).
  5. 1 MW for 1000 s at 170 GHz: ITER Newsline. High-specific-power electric machines for aircraft: NASA.

Plasma control and simulation

Estimation, feedback and the numerical methods behind the simulation notes.

  1. J. Degrave et al., "Magnetic control of tokamak plasmas through deep reinforcement learning," Nature 602, 414–419 (2022). doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04301-9
  2. J. R. Ferron et al., digital plasma control on DIII-D, IEEE SOFE 1991.
  3. P. L. Bhatnagar, E. P. Gross and M. Krook, "A model for collision processes in gases," Physical Review 94, 511–525 (1954). doi:10.1103/PhysRev.94.511
  4. Y. H. Qian, D. d'Humières and P. Lallemand, "Lattice BGK models for Navier-Stokes equation," Europhysics Letters 17, 479 (1992).
  5. Z. Guo, C. Zheng and B. Shi, "Discrete lattice effects on the forcing term in the lattice Boltzmann method," Physical Review E 65, 046308 (2002). doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.65.046308
  6. P. J. Dellar, "Lattice kinetic schemes for magnetohydrodynamics," Journal of Computational Physics 179, 95–126 (2002).
  7. S. Succi, The Lattice Boltzmann Equation for Fluid Dynamics and Beyond. Oxford University Press, 2001.
  8. T. Krüger, H. Kusumaatmaja, A. Kuzmin, O. Shardt, G. Silva and E. M. Viggen, The Lattice Boltzmann Method: Principles and Practice. Springer, 2017.

Research horizon

Background for questions beyond the XR-1 baseline. None of them is needed to test the propulsion hypothesis.

  1. N. J. Zabusky and M. D. Kruskal, "Interaction of ‘solitons’ in a collisionless plasma and the recurrence of initial states," Physical Review Letters 15, 240–243 (1965). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.15.240
  2. E. Mjølhus, "On the modulational instability of hydromagnetic waves parallel to the magnetic field," Journal of Plasma Physics 16, 321–334 (1976).
  3. A. V. Gaponov and M. A. Miller, "Potential wells for charged particles in a high-frequency electromagnetic field," Soviet Physics JETP 7, 168–169 (1958).
  4. M. A. Subramanian, D. Li, N. Duan, B. A. Reisner and A. W. Sleight, "High dielectric constant in ACu3Ti4O12 and ACu3Ti3FeO12 phases," Journal of Solid State Chemistry 151, 323–325 (2000).
  5. A. E. Clark and H. S. Belson, "Giant room-temperature magnetostrictions in TbFe2 and DyFe2," Physical Review B 5, 3642–3644 (1972).

Prior art

Earlier architectures, as history.

  1. J. F. King, Jr., "Magnetohydrodynamic Propulsion Apparatus," US 3,322,374, filed 30 September 1964, granted 30 May 1967. Prior-art note PA-001.
  2. GB 830,816 (1960), superconducting rings with ionization means, cited in King's patent.

A bibliography is a list of people who did the hard part first.