Correlation-function method for the evaluation of plasma transport coefficients: The shear viscosity coefficient

Abstract

The density dependence of the viscosity coefficient of a dilute fully-ionized plasma is obtained. We associate the viscosity coefficient $\ensuremath{\eta}$ with the autocorrelation function of the off-diagonal elements of the stress tensor. The technique used is essentially equivalent to that used in a previous paper by the authors. The result of our analysis is $\ensuremath{\eta}=\ensuremath{\Sigma}{m=1}^{\ensuremath{\infty}}{U}_{m}(T)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{(\mathrm{ln}\ensuremath{\rho})}^{\ensuremath{-}m}$, where the ${U}_{m}(T)$ are the solutions to well-defined algebraic equations. If one Sonine polynomial is used, the shear viscosity is given by $\ensuremath{\eta}={[{d}_{1}(T)\mathrm{ln}\ensuremath{\rho}+{d}_{2}(T)]}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$.