Dispersion relation and Landau damping of waves in high-energy density plasmas

Abstract

We present a theoretical investigation on the propagation of electromagnetic waves and electron plasma waves in high energy density plasmas using the covariant Wigner function approach. Based on the covariant Wigner function and Dirac equation, a relativistic quantum kinetic model is established to describe the physical processes in high-energy density plasmas. With the zero-temperature Fermi–Dirac distribution, the dispersion relation and Landau damping of waves containing the relativistic quantum corrected terms are derived. The relativistic quantum corrections to the dispersion relation and Landau damping are analyzed by comparing our results with those obtained in classical and non-relativistic quantum plasmas. We provide a detailed discussion on the Landau damping obtained in classical plasmas, non-relativistic Fermi plasmas and relativistic Fermi plasmas. The contributions of the Bohm potential, the Fermi statistics pressure and relativistic effects to the dispersion relation and Landau damping of waves are quantitatively calculated with real plasma parameters.