Issues

 / 

2002

 / 

September

  

Reviews of topical problems


Kinetics of weakly collisional plasma


Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prosp. 53, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation

Under conditions which are usually associated with collisionless plasma, and in which the mean free path of charged particles considerably exceeds the characteristic size of the spatial inhomogeneities involved, plasmas always contain slow particles whose mean free path proportional to the fourth power of their velocity is less than the inhomogeneity scale. Although relatively few in number, these subthermal particles play a dominant role in such ’weakly collisional’ plasmas. In this paper, the results of the analytical kinetic theory of plasma are discussed, which highlight the determining role slow collisional particles play in such plasma phenomena as ion-acoustic wave damping and nonlinear electron-density perturbations due to the inhomogeneous intensity of the plasma-heating electromagnetic field. It is shown that by affecting these plasma properties the subthermal electrons correspondingly make an impact on parametric instabilities such as plasma radiation filamentation and stimulated Mandelstam-Brillouin scattering. Theoretical predictions are compared with numerical solutions of the Boltzmann equation. The concept of nonlocal plasma transfer processes, attracted to the interpretation of such solutions, is also discussed.

Fulltext pdf (461 KB)
Fulltext is also available at DOI: 10.1070/PU2002v045n09ABEH001147
PACS: 52.20.Hv, 52.35.Fp, 52.38.Bv (all)
DOI: 10.1070/PU2002v045n09ABEH001147
URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2002/9/b/
000180542700002
Citation: Silin V P "Kinetics of weakly collisional plasma" Phys. Usp. 45 955–976 (2002)
BibTexBibNote ® (generic)BibNote ® (RIS)Medline RefWorks
RT Journal
T1 Kinetics of weakly collisional plasma
A1 Silin,V.P.
PB Physics-Uspekhi
PY 2002
FD 10 Sep, 2002
JF Physics-Uspekhi
JO Phys. Usp.
VO 45
IS 9
SP 955-976
DO 10.1070/PU2002v045n09ABEH001147
LK https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2002/9/b/

Оригинал: Силин В П «Кинетика слабостолкновительной плазмы» УФН 172 1021–1044 (2002); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0172.200209b.1021

© 1918–2024 Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk
Email: ufn@ufn.ru Editorial office contacts About the journal Terms and conditions