Abstract
In a plasma the situation is much more complicated than that in the last chapter; the E and B fields are not prescribed but are determined by the positions and motions of the charges themselves. One must solve a self-consistent problem; that is, find a set of particle trajectories and field patterns such that the particles will generate the fields as they move along their orbits and the fields will cause the particles to move in those exact orbits. And this must be done in a time-varying situation. It sounds very hard, but it is not.
The original version of this chapter was revised. An erratum to this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22309-4_11
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Notes
- 1.
If the reader has not encountered this before, it is derived in Sect. 3.3.5.
- 2.
A Q-machine produces a quiescent plasma by thermal ionization of Cs or K atoms impinging on hot tungsten plates. Diamagnetic drifts were first measured in Q-machines.
- 3.
Why can’t vz → ∞ keeping mvz constant? Consider the energy!
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Chen, F.F. (2016). Plasmas as Fluids. In: Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22309-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22309-4_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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