ON THE KINETIC THEORY OF PLASMA.

Abstract

In view of difficulties encountered in attempting to develop kinetic theory beyond the lowest-order results, it is of major interest to ascertain whether or not the Bogolubov expansion method is at fault or whether the complicated physics of three-body effects is the stumbling block. We have been able to show that Bogolubov's method fails for a model of kinetic theory with many of the features of the BBGKY hierarchy but lacking, by construction, three-body effects. The failure of Bogolubov's method can be traced without ambiguity in our model to a failure of the functional assumption in a certain region of phase space in the neighborhood of slow relative motion. A method that overcomes this difficulty has been developed and tested successfully with an explicitly soluble case. A kinetic description was developed, suitable to determine the transport properties of a plasma in the presence of moderately strong magnetic fields. For a Lorentz plasma the electron velocity distribution was calculated and the electron-electron contributions to electrical and thermal conductivities have been determined explicitly. A descriptive survey of solid-state plasma phenomena is given. We discuss the generation of solid-state plasmas, then waves, and instabilities in solid-state plasmas. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1968
Accession Number
AD0678577

Entities

People

  • Arnold H. Kritz
  • Guido Sandri

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ambiguity
  • Conductivity
  • Construction
  • Demographic Cohorts
  • Electrons
  • Hierarchies
  • Instability
  • Kinetic Theory
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Physical Properties
  • Relative Motion
  • Thermal Conductivity
  • Transport Properties

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster