Close Collisions in a Plasma

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A two‐body distribution function in a plasma is developed for use in a kinetic equation for the one‐body distribution function. The kinetic equation is obtained for a uniform plasma for circumstances in which the time dependence of higher‐order distribution functions can be assumed to occur within a functional dependence on the one‐particle distribution function. The resulting interaction term is new, in the sense that it contains no divergent integrals, and is considered accurate to first order in (e 2/KTλD). The interaction term is composed of two parts. The first is a Boltzmann collision integral with a Debye‐shielded interaction. The second term is due to the deviation of the shielding cloud from a Debye shield and is of the Fokker‐Planck form, the coefficients of which are finite and well behaved. Because of its form, with a convergent collision integral and convergent Fokker‐Planck coefficients, the solution may be considered a joining of the previous solutions to the problem.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: