Plasma transport coefficients: an application of SO(3) group (Q628261)

The aim of the paper is to show in a didactical way the appearence of anisotropy that enters in the picture by the existence of a comparatively strong field magnetic in a weakly ionized plasma. The effect of the collisions between electrons and neutral particles is taken into account in a simple form. The mobility of neutral particles is very small due to their relatively great mass. The collisions are considered to be elastic, the collision frequency is constant. The motion of ions is neglected. When one considers the magnetic field decomposed into a constant and a first-order variabie part, the linearized Langevin equation is obtained, from which one gets a tensor equation between the current and the electric field, the coefficients are made up by the conductivity, the collision frequency and the magnetic field. This equation can be interpreted by a tensor quantity which contains the rotation matrix, one of the representations of the rotation group \(\text{SO}(3)\) in real space. By this presentation one can give the formulae for the diffusion coefficients as well. One may conclude that plasma transport coefficients in the presence of external magnetic field with sufficiently small spatial variations and under a uniform electric field are forming rank-2 tensors. The components are calculated to be expressions of the magnetic field and collision frequency.