ABSTRACT
Where a is the acceleration due to the smoothed-out electric and magnetic fields together with any external fields. A self-consistent theory is obtained by combining with Maxwell's equations. The fundamental concept in statistical mechanics is the ensemble, a collection of numerous replicas of the system under consideration. For a gas composed of neutral molecules, the approximation to be used is based on the short-range nature of the forces together with the assumption that the gas is sufficiently dilute. The calculations of Rosenbluth and Rostoker do not rely on the assumption of thermal equilibrium, and they are thus able to consider the case where the ions and electrons have a relative drift. As the drift is increased the fluctuations grow in magnitude, eventually diverging when the threshold for the two-stream instability is reached. The strong scattering which occurs in the marginal state is somewhat similar to what is termed critical opalescence in a vapor at the critical point.
