ABSTRACT

In this chapter we resume our study, begun in Chapter 5, of waves of small amplitude propagating in an infinite plasma. Our starting point will be the Vlasov equation introduced in Chapter 7, and attention will be directed to the new effects arising from the introduction of a thermal spread in the particle velocities. We could, of course, proceed directly to the most general case, but as in our previous work we shall find it more instructive to begin with a simple problem (longitudinal plasma oscillations without magnetic field) containing many of the essential features of the subject. More complicated cases are then readily treated despite the rather involved analysis. But first we write down general equations.