Quasilinear thermalization of collision-poor plasmas by noncollective fluctuations.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40954715.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1103/p4xz-8ltl.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
The observed Maxwellian velocity distribution functions in plasmas and the fact that the rate of elastic electron-electron collisions is many orders of magnitude smaller than the electron plasma frequency have been a long-standing puzzle. Here, we present a mechanism for efficient thermalization in collision-poor unmagnetized plasmas, which resolves this puzzle. The competition between the momentum losses of plasma particles by spontaneously emitting high-frequency non-collective fluctuations and the momentum diffusion of these particles in their self-generated fluctuating electric field fluctuations provides the Maxwellian particle distribution function. The mechanism is self-regulating, providing electron temperatures of about 10^{7}K, and it is applicable to fully ionized plasmas with electron densities below 10^{27}cm^{-3}.