High-Frequency Waves in a Collisional Plasma with Magnetic Field

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Abstract
The damping of electron-plasma oscillations, in a hot plasma in an external uniform magnetic field in the presence of weak Coulomb collisions, is investigated by using the Fokker-Planck equation. The electron-ion collisions play the dominant role; nevertheless, the electron-electron collisions become important as the wavelength decreases from infinity. As far as the electron-ion-collision contribution is concerned, the frictional term exceeds the diffusion term; but in the electron-electron case, both the frictional and the diffusion contributions are of the same order. The two-body Coulomb collisions have a stabilizing effect on these plasma waves; the magnetic field, however, does not affect the longitudinal waves, but has a tendency to stabilize the left-handed polarized wave and to destabilize the right-handed polarized wave.