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Reduction of the Coulomb logarithm due to electron-neutral collisions

Plasma Physics 2020-07-01 v1

Abstract

The frictional force (stopping power) acting on a test electron moving through the ideal electron gas is calculated taking into account electron-neutral atom collisions using the linear plasma response formalism. This allows us to elucidate how the effective Coulomb logarithm is affected by electron-neutral collisions. In agreement with a recent investigation by Hagelaar, Donko, and Dyatko [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 123}, 025004 (2019)] we observe that the effective Coulomb logarithm decreases considerably due to electron-neutral collisions and becomes inversely proportional to the collision frequency in the highly collisional limit.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2006.00128,
  title  = {Reduction of the Coulomb logarithm due to electron-neutral collisions},
  author = {Sergey Khrapak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.00128},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

4 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev. E