Quantitative modeling of streamer discharge branching in air

<p>Streamer discharges are the primary mode of electric breakdown of air in lightning and high voltage technology.&nbsp;Streamer channels branch many times, which determines the developing tree-like discharge structure.&nbsp;We simulate branching of positive streamers in air using a 3D fluid model with stochastic photoionization.&nbsp;The distributions of branching angles and branching locations agree quantitatively with dedicated experiments.&nbsp;The simulated branching is remarkably sensitive to the photoionization coefficients, which confirms the validity of the classical photoionization model.</p>