Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-25T19:59:43.110Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A note on the formation of Debye potential well in current-carrying plasmas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

J. R. Kan
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 03755

Extract

The field of a test charge at rest in a plasma is known to be shielded via the collective interaction between the test charge and the particles of the plasma. In a thermal equilibrium plasma, the shielded potential has a spatial variation of the Debye form exp (— r)/r. In this note we will show that, in a collisionless current-carrying plasma, the potential profile along the radial direction parallel to the current changes from the Debye form to a potential well form, and causes a reversal of the ele ctric field of the test charge. The formation of the Debye potential well is attributed to the resonant interaction between the particles and the waves stationary in the test charge frame when the net flux of charged particles is different from zero. This is the same type of resonant interaction which leads to the well-known Landau damping (Landau 1946).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramowitz, M. & Stegun, I. A. 1967 Handbook of Mathematical Functions. National Bureau of Standards.Google Scholar
Cooper, G. 1969 Phys. Fluids 12, 2707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fried, B. D. & Conte, S. D. 1961 The Plasma Dispersion Function. Academic.Google Scholar
Fried, B. D. & Gould, R. W. 1961 Phys. Fluids 4, 139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landau, L. 1946 J. Phys. (USSR) 10, 45.Google Scholar
Montgomery, D., Joyce, G. & Sugihara, R. 1968 Plasma Phys. 10, 681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, W. B. 1962 An Introduction to Plasma Physics. Addison-Wcsley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar