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The Vlasov equation cannot fully account for collisionless shocks

Plasma Physics 2025-06-03 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

It is argued that the Vlasov equation cannot fully account for collisionless shocks since it conserves entropy, while a shock does not. A rigorous mathematical theory of collisionless shocks could require working at the Klimontovich level.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.01548,
  title  = {The Vlasov equation cannot fully account for collisionless shocks},
  author = {Antoine Bret},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.01548},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

6 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Contributions to Plasma Physics