ABSTRACT
Introduction Transport phenomena in plasmas are the relatively slow processes of particle, momentum and energy transport in the situation when the system is in a state of the mechanical equilibrium, so that the sum of the forces applied to any element of its volume is zero. Even if the system is not in the state of thermodynamic equilibrium, there remain the transport processes caused by collisions. The most important of them are diffusion and thermal diffusion (particle transport), viscosity (momentum transport), heat conductivity (energy transport), conductivity (transport of charged particles). In contrast to the neutral gases, transport phenomena in plasmas are greatly influenced by the self-consistent fields, primarily by the electric fields. The latter are inherent to the inhomogeneous plasma. In addition to the particle and energy fluxes generated by the inhomogeneity of the plasma composition and temperature, fluxes produced by the electric fields inevitably arise. These fluxes result in the radical changes of the transport phenomena with respect to the well-known and thoroughly investigated phenomena in gaseous mixtures of neutral particles. As a result, the physical effects which accompany the transport phenomena in plasmas, are far more numerous and complicated, and the solution of the corresponding problems causes considerable difficulties. But the effects are usually far more interesting and sometimes even surprising, than in the case of neutral gases.
