Linear Theory of Electron-Plasma Waves at Arbitrary Collisionality

Abstract

The dynamics of electron-plasma waves are described at arbitrary collisionality by considering the full Coulomb collision operator. The description is based on a Hermite-Laguerre decomposition of the velocity dependence of the electron distribution function. The damping rate, frequency, and eigenmode spectrum of electron-plasma waves are found as functions of the collision frequency and wavelength. A comparison is made between the collisionless Landau damping limit, the Lenard-Bernstein and Dougherty collision operators, and the electron-ion collision operator, finding large deviations in the damping rates and eigenmode spectra. A purely damped entropy mode, characteristic of a plasma where pitch-angle scattering effects are dominant with respect to collisionless effects, is shown to emerge numerically, and its dispersion relation is analytically derived. It is shown that such a mode is absent when simplified collision operators are used, and that like-particle collisions strongly influence the damping rate of the entropy mode.

arXiv comment23 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication on Journal of Plasma Physics

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• Generalized Collisional Fluid Theory for Multi-Component, Multi-Temperature Plasma Using The Linearized Boltzmann Collision Operator for Scrape-Off Layer/Edge Applications
• Full-F Turbulent Simulation in a Linear Device using a Gyro-Moment Approach
• Four-dimensional drift-kinetic model for scrape-off layer plasmas