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Phys. Rev. 89, 977–981 (1953)

Transport Phenomena in a Completely Ionized Gas

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Lyman Spitzer, Jr. and Richard Härm
Princeton University Observatory, Princeton, New Jersey

Received 10 November 1952; published in the issue dated March 1953

The coefficients of electrical and thermal conductivity have been computed for completely ionized gases with a wide variety of mean ionic charges. The effect of mutual electron encounters is considered as a problem of diffusion in velocity space, taking into account a term which previously had been neglected. The appropriate integro-differential equations are then solved numerically. The resultant conductivities are very close to the less extensive results obtained with the higher approximations on the Chapman-Cowling method, provided the Debye shielding distance is used as the cutoff in summing the effects of two-body encounters.

© 1953 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRev.89.977
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRev.89.977
PACS: