ABSTRACT
T he m ajority o f p lasm as are sim ilar to gases from the po in t o f view that, m ost o f the tim e, e lec trons and ions are m oving straigh t fo rw ard betw een co llis ions. T his m eans that the in terpartic le po ten tia l energy U °c e 2/4n e{)R , co rrespond ing to the average d is tance betw een e lec trons and ions R ~ « “l/3, is m uch less than the ir relative k inetic energy (w hich is approx im ate ly equal to tem pera tu re Te, expressed in energy units):
(4rc e 0 )3U
P lasm a sa tisfy ing th is cond ition is ca lled ideal plasm a. T he non ideal p lasm a (co rrespond ing to the inverse o f inequality E quation 6.1 and very h igh density o f charged partic les) is not found in nature. E ven crea tion o f such p lasm a in a laboratory is, so far, p rob lem atic . T herefore , only e lec tro s ta tica lly ideal p lasm as w ill be co n sidered in th is chapter. N onideal p lasm a effects w ill only be considered in Section 11.8 dealing w ith dusty p lasm as.
