Linked Questions
27 questions linked to/from Why are ions and electrons at different temperatures in a plasma?
3
votes
8
answers
3k
views
Visualising gas temperature and gas pressure
Gas pressure is created when gas molecules collide with the wall of the container creating a force.
Gas temperature is a measure of how fast the molecules are moving / vibrating.
However, they both ...
- 337
2
votes
2
answers
4k
views
What is meant by "collective behavior" in the definition of plasma?
"Plasmas are many-body systems, with enough mobile charged particles to cause some collective behavior ." [M.S. Murillo and J.C.Weisheit Physics Reports 302, 1-65 (1998)].
In the above definition ...
- 313
2
votes
2
answers
535
views
How many temperatures has a plasma?
In nonthermal plasma, not all particles move in the same way. The electrons are different from other particles. Both can be described as having a temperature separately. But that would mean, one piece ...
- 3,966
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Why does the electron mean free path need to be larger than the mean interatomic distance?
In an article (over 250 citations) on plasma physics I've read a paragraph which I find very confusing. The authors state that there's a minimum mean free path an electron travels before it is ...
- 562
4
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Differences between "cold" and "collisionless" plasma
I'm just stepping for the first time into plasma physics and I'm studying on Chen's "Introduction to plasma physics" and on the notes of professor Richard Fitzpatrick.
I just seem to not have clear ...
- 51
2
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Limitations of the ideal gas law: When does it fail?
Motivation
I ask this question precisely because I am looking for a fundamental, quantitative explanation of the limitations of the ideal gas law and when it should not be used.
Note, I have found ...
- 15.8k
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
Ohmic heating in a fusion plasma
In a microscopic classic picture, ohmic heating occurs due to collisions. Let's start with the simplest case: a cooper wire and a battery that induces a current. Electrons start flowing and the energy ...
- 113
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
How to calculate the free mean path of electrons in the gas mixture? [closed]
How to calculate the free mean path of electrons in the gas mixture? I understand (a little bit) the mean free path concept for the atomic collisions but I am not sure what to do if I am interested in ...
user148787
4
votes
2
answers
365
views
Why does an oscillating electric field couple more strongly to electrons than to ions?
As stated in Principles of Plasma Discharges and Materials Processing, by M. A. Lieberman and A. J. Lichtenberg, about capacitively coupled plasmas:
(...) the light and heavy charged particles in ...
- 1,046
2
votes
1
answer
735
views
If ions in plasma are not in Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution, what is the meaning of ion temperature?
From what I understand, if a gas has a temperature $T$ degrees Kelvin, it means that the probability of a gas particle to have energy $E$ is proportional to $\exp(-E/kT)$. It is the physical ...
2
votes
1
answer
710
views
Significance of the ion Hall parameter
For an ionized Helium gas, for example, MHD Hall generators rely on the mobility ratios between electrons and ions to function and produce a Hall current. As far as I can tell, intuitively, increasing ...
- 669
0
votes
0
answers
919
views
Why is electron temperature in plasma higher than ion temperature?
Wikipedia states that
The electron temperature of a plasma can be several orders of magnitude higher than the temperature of the neutral species or of the ions. This is a result of two facts. ...
- 615
4
votes
1
answer
270
views
Temperature anisotropy in plasmas
If a species of a plasma is described by a distribution function $f(\mathbf{r},\mathbf{v},t)$, is it possible to have different temperature (thermal energy) values for different directions (x, y and z)...
- 141
3
votes
1
answer
438
views
Pressure in a gas as it becomes a plasma
Let's say you have 1 mole of hydrogen, and you heat it to the point that the H-H bond breaks and you get free hydrogen atoms, and then fully ionized hydrogen ions + electrons.
When H2 becomes 2H (...
- 33
2
votes
2
answers
354
views
What is the PDF of relative collision speeds in an ideal gas?
In the Kinetic theory of gases, the speeds of particles follow a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
However, what if one is interested in the distribution of relative collision speeds, aggregated over ...
- 75