Turbulent ‘polarization’ terms and the Balescu-Lenard operator

Certain unfamiliar terms in renormalized plasma turbulence theory are interpreted in terms of the familiar physics of the Balescu-Lenard collision operator. Specifically, it is argued that the so-called polarization parts of the operator which renormalizes the particle propagator are related to fluctuations of the Fokker-Planck coefficient which describes polarization drag, and to fluctuations of the effective dielectric function of the medium.