Contribution of Electron-Electron Collisions to the Emission of Bremsstrahlung by a Plasma

Abstract

A new model for treating plasma radiation processes in plasmas is extended to the problem of bremsstrahlung emission from electron‐electron collisions. The spectra of longitudinal and transverse waves, including dielectric effects, are derived to lowest nonvanishing (quadrupole) order. A resonance in the spectrum of transverse waves near ω = 2ω_p, the first harmonic of the electron plasma frequency, is noted. The high‐frequency form of the transverse spectrum is approximately evaluated and found to be relativistically small by comparison with the dominant electron‐ion bremsstrahlung. Finite wavelength corrections to the radiation generated by electron‐ion collisions are also discussed.