English

Diffusion in plasma: the Hall effect, compositional waves, and chemical spots

Plasma Physics 2017-04-05 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

We consider diffusion caused by a combined influence of the electric current and the Hall effect, and argue that such diffusion can form inhomogeneities of the chemical composition in plasma. The considered mechanism can be responsible for a formation of element spots in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. This current-driven diffusion can be accompanied by propagation of a particular type waves in which the impurity number density oscillate alone. These compositional waves exist if the magnetic pressure in plasma is much greater than the gas pressure,

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1609.03928,
  title  = {Diffusion in plasma: the Hall effect, compositional waves, and chemical spots},
  author = {Vadim Urpin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.03928},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

12 pages, to appear in Plasma Phys. Reports. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1605.07893

R2 v1 2026-06-22T15:48:36.626Z