Equilibrium Configuration of a Plasma in the Guiding Center Limit

by Alan V. Oppenheim

We present a calculation of the equilibrium configuration of a plasma in a magnetic field for a plasma with a non-scalar pressure tensor. Certain other studies of equilibrium con sider scalar pressure plasmas (for example reference as is appropriate for a collision dominated fluid. Yet whenever it is appropriate to characterize the plasma as a collision free gas, we expect that the presence of a magnetic field can be related to an anisotropy in the pressure tensor. For such a plasma the anisotropy will persist since there are no collisions to disturb it.

42 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1960

About the author

Alan Victor Oppenheim is a professor of engineering at MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is also a principal investigator in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), at the Digital Signal Processing Group.

His research interests are in the general area of signal processing and its applications. He is co-author of the widely used textbooks Discrete-Time Signal Processing and Signals and Systems. He is also the editor of several advanced books on signal processing.