Direct path from microscopic mechanics to Debye shielding, Landau damping and wave-particle interaction. (12th January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Escande, D F; Elskens, Yves; Doveil, F
• Is Part Of: Plasma physics and controlled fusion. Volume 57:Number 2(2015:Feb.)
• Publication Date: 2015-01-12
• Subjects: basic plasma physics -- Debye shielding -- wave-particle interaction -- N-body dynamics -- Landau damping -- spontaneous emission -- amplitude equation; Plasma (Ionized gases) -- Periodicals; Controlled fusion -- Periodicals; 530.44
• DOI: 10.1088/0741-3335/57/2/025017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0741-3335

Abstract

Abstract: The derivation of Debye shielding and Landau damping from the N -body description of plasmas is performed directly by using Newton's second law for the N -body system. This is done in a few steps with elementary calculations using standard tools of calculus and no probabilistic setting. Unexpectedly, Debye shielding is encountered together with Landau damping. This approach is shown to be justified in the one-dimensional case when the number of particles in a Debye sphere becomes large. The theory is extended to accommodate a correct description of trapping and chaos due to Langmuir waves. On top of their well-known production of collisional transport, the repulsive deflections of electrons are shown to produce shielding, in such a way that each particle is shielded by all other ones, while keeping in uninterrupted motion.