VELOCITY SPACE DIFFUSION AND LANDAU DAMPING IN COLLISIONAL PLASMAS,

Abstract

The statistical behavior of a completely ionized plasma in which collisional effects are included is described by the Vlasov equation coupled to the Poisson equation, terms suggested by the Krook relaxation model and the isotropic Fokker-Planck model being chosen as collision operators. As a result of perturbations on the background distribution function, longitudinal oscillations are set up and the plasma diffuses in velocity space as a consequence of wave-particle interaction. The coupled equations are solved by the method of characteristics in the Fourier transformed space, employing the quasi-linear approximation developed by Drummond, Pines, Vendenov, Velikhov and Sagdeev. The longitudinal behavior of the plasma is followed into the quasi-linear regime in which both collisional and collisionless Landau damping and velocity space diffusion mechanisms are investigated. The rate of dissipation is shown to have collisionless as well as collisional attributes. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1969
Accession Number
AD0696150

Entities

People

  • Kwok-leung Li
  • Norman C. Jen

Organizations

  • City College of New York

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Collisions
  • Diffusion
  • Dissipation
  • Distribution Functions
  • Equations
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Mathematics
  • Method Of Characteristics
  • Oscillation
  • Particles
  • Perturbations
  • Poisson Equation

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster