Electrical Conductivity of a Turbulent Plasma

Abstract

The conductivity of a turbulent plasma parallel to a magnetic field is determined. The plasma is assumed to be homogeneous and the motion of ions is neglected. The ordinary magnetohydrodynamic equations are used. The nonlinear contribution of the product of density and the electric field to the dc conductivity is expressed in terms of the density fluctuations of the plasma. Both weakly ionized and fully ionized plasmas are considered. The nonlinear effect is present either in a weakly ionized plasma or in a fully ionized plasma with adiabatic waves. For example, in a weakly ionized plasma, the conductivity is reduced by the factor 1 ‐ ⅓ S without a magnetic field, and is reduced by the factor 1 ‐ S with a strong magnetic field where S^½ is the ratio of ac rms value of the density to the dc density. The noise electric fields are found to increase with external dc electric field, especially for a high magnetic field.