Turing structures in dc gas discharges

Self-organized spatial plasma structures exhibit many similarities with Turing structures obtained in biology and chemistry. Using an analytical mesoscopic approach it is shown that plasma balls of fire belong to the same class of Turing structures like the Brusselator. It is also mathematically proved that the existence of these self-organized plasma structures is related with a negative differential resistance. There are also established the mathematical conditions which the negative differential resistance must satisfy for obtaining a stationary ball of fire at the anode of a plasma diode.