Kinetic theory of fully degenerate electrons in the long scale limit

Abstract

The kinetic theory of fully degenerate electrons in a weakly coupled plasma is considered. We derive an evolution equation for a generalized Fermi surface that also depends on the electron spin state. The equation allows for the study of weakly nonlinear modifications of the Fermi surface within perturbation theory. We apply the theory to Landau damping of ion-acoustic waves. The transition to the nonlinear stage and the nonlinear modification of the Fermi surface are investigated.