CHAPTER 6: Vlasov Equation
CHAPTER 6: Vlasov Equation Part 1 6. 1 Introduction Distribution Function, Kinetic Equation, and Kinetic Theory : The distribution function ft(xv , , ) gives the particle density of a certitain speci es i n th th6die 6-dimensi onal ph ase space ofdtf xv and at time t. Thus, ftdxdv(xv , , )33 is the total number of particles in the differen- tial volume dxdv33 at point (xv , ) and time t. A kinetic equation describes the time evolution of f (xv , ,t ). The kinetic theories in Chs. 3-5 derive various forms of kinetic equations. In most cases,,,p however, the plasma behavior can be described by an approximate kinetic equation, called the Vlasov equation, which simply neglects the complications caused by collisions. By ignoring collisions , we may star t out without the knowledge of Chs. 3-5 and proceed directly to the derivation of the Vlasov equation (also called the collisionless Boltzmann equation). 1 6.1 Introduction (continued) The Vlasov Equation : As shown in Sec. 2.9, a collision can result in an abrupt change of two colliding pa rticles' velocities and their instant escape from a small element in the xv- space, which contains the colliding particles before the collision. However, if collisions are neglected(validonatimescaled (valid on a time scale the collision time, see Sec. 1.6), particles in an element at position A in the xv- space will wander in continuous curves to v position B ( see fig fiure) . Th us, th e t ot al numbithber in the B element is conserved, and ft(xv , , ) obeys an equation A of continuity, which takes the form (see next page): x t ft(xv , , )xv, [ ft ( xv , , )( x , v )] 0 (1) In (1), xv, [ ( , , , , , )] is a 6 - dimensional xyzvxyz v v divergence operator and (x , v ) [ (xyzv , , , x , v yz,)]v can be regarded as a 6-dimensional "velocity" vector in the xv- space.
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