Collisional transport for a superthermal ion species in magnetized plasma
Abstract
The transport theory of a high-energy ion species injected isotropically in a magnetized plasma is considered for arbitrary ratios of the high-energy ion cyclotron frequency to the collisional slowing down time. The assumptions of (i) low fractional density of the high-energy species and (ii) average ion speed faster than the thermal ions and slower than the electrons are used to decouple the kinetic equation for the high-energy species from the kinetic equations for background ions and electrons. The kinetic equation is solved by a Chapman-Enskog expansion in the strength of the gradients; an equation for the first correction to the lowest-order distribution function is obtained without scaling a priori the collision frequency with respect to the gyrofrequency. Various transport coefficients are explicitly calculated for the two cases of a weakly and a strongly magnetized plasma.
- Publication:
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Journal of Plasma Physics
- Pub Date:
- December 1986
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 1986JPlPh..36..313C
- Keywords:
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- Collisional Plasmas;
- Ion Motion;
- Ionic Collisions;
- Transport Properties;
- Chapman-Enskog Theory;
- Cyclotron Frequency;
- Gyrofrequency;
- Kinetic Equations;
- Magnetic Fields;
- Plasma Physics