Light Scattering from Collision-Dominated Plasmas

Abstract

The scattering of electromagnetic radiation by a fully ionized, collision-dominated plasma in a magnetic field is investigated using a stochastic approach. The stochastic equations for the density-fluctuation operators are modified to include particle collisions through a Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook collision model. The equations of this model are constructed to conserve particle number, energy, and momentum. Explicit numerical results are obtained in the absence of magnetic fields and compared to experimental values and other theories. The analytical results are assumed valid for plasmas which can be characterized by Maxwellian velocity distributions for electrons and ions at the same or different temperatures.