Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T15:11:36.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Suppression of runaway of electrons in a Lorentz plasma. II. crossed electric and magnetic fields

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

Barbara Abraham-Shrauner
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63130

Abstract

Suppression of runaway of electrons in a weak, uniform electric field in a fully ionized Lorentz plasma by crossed magnetic and electric fields is analysed. A uniform, constant magnetic field parallel to a constant or harmonically time varying electric field does not alter runaway from that in the absence of the magnetic field. For crossed, constant fields the passage to runaway or to free motion as described by constant drift motion and spiral motion about the magnetic field is lengthened in time for strong magnetic fields. The new ‘runaway’ time scale is roughly the ratio of the cyclotron frequency to the collision frequency squared for cyclotron frequencies much greater than the collision frequency. All ‘runaway’ time scales may be given approximately by t2E Teff where tE is the characteristic time of the electric field and Teff is the ffective collision time as estimated from the appropriate component of the electrical conductivity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abraham-Shrauner, B. 1970 J. Plasma Phys. 4, 378. This paper is henceforth referred to as I.Google Scholar
Chandreseklar, S. 1960 Plasma Physics, ed. Trehan, S. K., Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Balescu, R. 1963 Statistical Mechanics of Charged Particles. New York: Interscience Pubs.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. D. 1962 Classical Electrodynamics. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Lighthill, M. J. 1949 Phil. Mag. 40, 1179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pouicaré, H. 1892 Les Methods Nouvelles de la Mechanique Celeste, vol. 1. Paris: Dover Press.Google Scholar
Prigogne, I. 1962 Non-Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics. New York: Interscienco Pubs.Google Scholar