Irreversible Processes in Plasmas in a Strong Magnetic Field

Abstract

A discussion is given of the irreversible processes in plasmas in a strong magnetic field. The processes can be classified with regard to the tensor rank of the irreversible flow. Considerations are given for the relaxation between ion and electron temperatures where the flow is a scalar, and for electric and thermal conductions where the flows are vectors. The theory of irreversible processes may be considered from the phenomenological (macroscopic) or molecular (microscopic) point of view. The phenomenological theory is an application of the thermodynamic properties of irreversible processes. The characteristic features of the phenomenological coefficients in linear relations are discussed for the processes in strong magnetic fields. The microscopic theory is an application of the force-correlation formalism to a gaseous plasma. (B.O.G.)