Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-cnmwb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-24T19:15:12.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - Transport models in plasma media and numerical methods

from Part III - Electron transport

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Wei Cai
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Get access

Summary

In this, the final chapter of the book, we study the transport phenomena in plasma due to electrons and ions. These phenomena have wide applications in astrophysics, confined nuclear thermal reactions, and in high-density laser plasma interactions, etc. Plasma, considered as the fourth state of matter in the universe, differs from solids, liquids, and gases, in that there is a much weakened bond strength between its constituent particles. The plasma state of a medium is created via high-temperature external heating, which results in an increase in both the thermal energy and the number of atomic ionizations (i.e., an electron in an outer shell of an atom escapes from its nuclear force confinement once it obtains enough external energy from photon excitation or collision), which produces free-moving electrons and ions. The primary force in a plasma medium is described by the long-range Coulomb forces of electrostatics. The motions of the electrons and the ions can be described by a kinetic theory with special treatment of the collision under the long-range electric potential, which includes the Boltzmann– Fokker–Planck equations or the Balescu–Lenard equations. A macroscopic description of the electron/ion density can also be obtained through the moments of the kinetic equation as the magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) equations. Three types of numerical methods based on kinetic and hydrodynamic models will be discussed in this chapter. The first type is the Boltzmann–Fokker–Planck solver in phase space, and the second is the particle-in-cell method, which tracks the dynamics of individual particles under the Lorentz force of the electromagnetic fields; the latter is also coupled to the charge distributions of the moving particles. Finally, the third type is a constrained transport method of finite difference type for the MHD equations, which observes the divergence-free constraint on the magnetic field.

Type
Chapter
Information
Computational Methods for Electromagnetic Phenomena
Electrostatics in Solvation, Scattering, and Electron Transport
, pp. 402 - 418
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×