Plasma adiabatic lapse rate
Plasma Physics
2015-06-04 v1
Abstract
The plasma analog of an adiabatic lapse rate (or temperature variation with height) in atmospheric physics is obtained. A new source of plasma temperature gradient in a binary ion species mixture is found that is proportional to the concentration gradient and difference in average ionization states . Application to inertial-confinement-fusion implosions indicates a potentially strong effect in plastic (CH) ablators that is not modeled with mainline (single-fluid) simulations. An associated plasma thermodiffusion coefficient is derived, and charge-state diffusion in a single-species plasma is also predicted.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1204.2307,
title = {Plasma adiabatic lapse rate},
author = {Peter Amendt and Claudio Bellei and Scott Wilks},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.2307},
year = {2015}
}