The Kinetic Theory of Inert Dilute Plasmas

ISBN-13: 9781402093296 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 166 str.

Leopoldo Garca-A-Cola-N Scherer; Leonardo Dagdug

Opis

The contents of this book are the result of work performed in the past three years to provide some answers to questions raised by several colleagues wo- inginastrophysics. Examiningseveraltransportprocessesinplasmasrelated to dissipative e?ects in phenomena such as cooling ?ows, propagation of sound waves, thermal conduction in the presence of magnetic ?elds, an- lar momentum transfer in accretion disks, among many, one ?nds a rather common pattern. Indeed when values for transport coe?cients are required the overwhelming majority of authors refer to the classical results obtained by L. Spitzer and S. Braginski over forty years ago. Further, it is also often mentioned that under the prescribed working conditions the values of such coe?cients are usually insu?cient to provide agreement with observations. The methodology followed by these authors is based upon Landau's - oneering idea that collisions in plasmas may be substantially accounted for when viewed as a di?usive process. Consequently the ensuing basic kinetic equation is the Fokker-Planck version of Boltzmann's equation as essentially proposed by Landau himself nearly 70 years ago. Curiously enough the magni?cent work of the late R. Balescu in both Classical and Non-Classical transport in plasmas published in 1988 and also based on the Fokker-Planck equation is hardly known in the astrophysical audience. The previous work of Spitzer and Braginski is analyzed with much more rigorous vision in his two books on the subject.

Spis treści

Vector Transport Processes.- Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics.- The Problem.- Solution of the Boltzmann Equation.- Calculation of the Currents.- Solution of the Integral Equations.- The Transport Coefficients.- Discussion of the Results.- Tensorial Transport Processes.- Viscomagnetism.- Magnetohydrodynamics.

Blurb

This book results from recent studies aimed at answering questions raised by astrophycists who use values of transport coefficients that are old and often unsatisfactory. The few books dealing with the rigorous kinetic theory of a ionized plasma are based on the so called Landau (Fokker-Planck) equation and they seldom relate the microscopic results with their macroscopic counterpart provided by classical non-equilibrium thermodynamics. In this book both issues are thoroughly covered. Starting from the full Boltzmann equation for inert dilute plasmas and using the Hilbert-Chapman-Enskog method to solve the first two approximations in Knudsen´s parameter, we construct all the transport properties of the system within the framework of linear irreversible thermodynamics. This includes a systematic study of all possible cross effects (which, except for a few cases, were never treated in the literature) as well as the famous H-theorem. The equations of magneto-hydrodynamics for dilute plasmas, including the rather surprising results obtained for the viscomagnetic effects, may be now fully assessed. This book will be of immediate interest to the plasma physics community, as well as to astrophysicists. It is also likely to make an impact in the field of cold plasmas, involving laser cooled Rydberg atoms.