Comments on "The time evolution of the resistances and inductances of the discharges in a pulsed gas laser through its current waveforms" [with reply]

Persephonis et al. (see ibid., vol.24, p.1208-14 (1996)) present a method for calculating the time evolution of the resistance and inductance from the measured current and voltage waveforms of a circuit. As it was pointed out by Fridman (1997), from those measurements, it is impossible to obtain a unique time evolution of the resistance and inductance; further hypothesis are needed to solve the problem. In this comment we analyze the results presented in the above paper and find several contradictory features, like violations to the Kirchoff´s law. Finally, we stress the fact that during the fast breakdown of a gas gap characterized by large, fast varying values of the resistivity, it is impossible to meaningfully and separately define a resistance and an inductance as lumped parameters of a circuit.