Quantum plasmas I: The convergence formalism

Abstract

It is shown from first principles, using the formalism of Wigner distributions, that the divergences in the plasma kinetic equation due to the long range nature of the Coulomb interaction can be eliminated even if the plasma is rapidly varying, inhomogeneous, and immersed in external fields. This is due to the fact that for plasmas which have a screening length much larger than either the electron thermal wavelength or the classical distance of closest approach there is a large region in impact parameter space in which collision terms based on binary collisions and collision terms based on small momentum transfer give the same result.