Different Ways of Describing Plasma Dynamics
Book chapter, 2012

In order to realize which approximations that are made in the descriptions of plasmas that we generally use, it is instructive to start from the most general description which includes all individual particles and their correlations in the six dimensional phase space (r,v). I the absence of particle sources or sinks we must have a continuity equation for the delta function density N:$$ N(X,t) = \sum\limits_{{i = 1}}^N {(X - {{X}_i}} (t))\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,X = ({\mathbf{r}},{\mathbf{v}}) $$ $$ \frac{\partial }{{\partial t}}N + \sum\limits_i {\frac{\partial }{{\partial {{r}_i}}}} \left({N\frac{{\partial {{r}_i}}}{{\partial t}}} \right) + \sum\limits_i {\frac{\partial }{{\partial {{\hbox{v}}_i}}}} \left({N\frac{{\partial {{\text{v}}_i}}}{{\partial t}}} \right) = 0, $$

Dimensional Phase Space

Vlasov Equation

Drift Frequency

Fluid Equation

Particle Distribution Function

Author

Jan Weiland

EURATOM-VR

Chalmers, Physics

Springer Series on Atomic, Optical, and Plasma Physics

16155653 (ISSN) 21976791 (eISSN)

Vol. 71 11-26

Subject Categories

Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics

DOI

10.1007/978-1-4614-3743-7_2

More information

Latest update

7/11/2024