Dielectric function for the Balescu-Lenard-Poisson kinetic equations

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5791861

Jasperse, J R; Basu, B

By using the propagator expansion method applied to an electron-ion plasma near thermal equilibrium, a closed-form solution is found for the high frequency, collisional dielectric function in the electrostatic approximation to the first order in the plasma parameter when the Balescu-Lenard collision operator is used to describe electron-electron and electron-ion collisions. The Balescu-Lenard dielectric function is shown to be an entire function of the complex frequency variable w. Since an exact solution for the collisional propagtor for the Balescu-Lenard problem is probably impossible, these results illustrate the usefulness of the propagator expansion method as a way of obtaining the dielectric function for collisional plasmas. A comparison is made between the Balescu-Lenard result for the plasma conductivity as the wave vector K approaches 0 and the Guernsey result, obtained by Oberman, Ron, and Dawson. By solving the Balescu-Lenard dispersion relation in the long wavelength approximation, a formula is obtained for the total damping rate for Langmuir waves, which is the sum of the collisionless (Landau) part and the collisional part. A numerical solution of the Balescu-Lenard dispersion relation was also performed, and the analytical and numerical results for the damping rates are compared at long wavelengths. Comparisons of the Balescu-Lenard damping rate to the quantum-mechanical result are made.

• Research Organization: Air Force Geophysics Lab., Hanscom AFB, MA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5791861
• Report Number(s): AD-A-164764/3/XAB; AFGL-TR-86-0033
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700105* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Plasma Kinetics-Theoretical-- (-1987)
COLLISIONAL PLASMA
COLLISIONS
DAMPING
DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELECTRON COLLISIONS
ELECTRON-ELECTRON COLLISIONS
ELECTRON-ION COLLISIONS
ELECTROSTATICS
EQUATIONS
EXPANSION
ION COLLISIONS
KINETIC EQUATIONS
MATHEMATICS
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLASMA