The frequency and damping of ion acoustic waves in collisional and collisionless two-species plasma
- University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551 (United States)
The dispersion properties of ion acoustic waves are sensitive to the strength of ion-ion collisions in multispecies plasma in which the different species usually have differing charge-to-mass ratios. The modification of the frequency and damping of the fast and slow acoustic modes in a plasma composed of light (low-Z) and heavy (high-Z) ions is considered. In the fluid limit where the light ion scattering mean free path {lambda}{sub lh} is smaller than the acoustic wavelength, {lambda}=2{pi}/k, the interspecies friction and heat flow carried by the light ions scattering from the heavy ions causes the damping. In the collisionless limit, k{lambda}{sub lh}>>1, Landau damping by the light ions provides the dissipation. In the intermediate regime when k{lambda}{sub lh}{approx}1, the damping is at least as large as the sum of the collisional and Landau damping.
- OSTI ID:
- 20698361
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 12, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.1855923; (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
The Frequency and Damping of Ion Acoustic Waves in Collisional and Collisionless Two-species Plasma
Effect of electron collisions on ion-acoustic waves and heat flow