The collision times and transport coefficients of a fully ionized plasma with superthermal particles

Abstract

The relations governing the collision times and transport coefficients of fully ionized plasma in the presence of kappa-distributed particles are obtained, using Fokker Planck equation. The expressions for slowing down, deflection and energy loss times as well as electrical conductivity and diffusion across a magnetic field for the power law kappa distribution are derived. It is shown that the collision times and transport coefficients are considerably modified by the kappa parameter and they are reduced to the standard forms in the case of Maxwellian distribution for \(\kappa \to \infty \). In addition, it is observed that as super thermal particles increase for a fixed value of beam velocity such as the characteristic thermal velocity of plasma particles, the collision times will decrease. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the plasmas with larger \(\kappa\)’s are better conductors. Finally, it is seen that the diffusion coefficient across the magnetic field increases with deviation from the Maxwellian limit. This research will be helpful in understanding the relaxation times and transport properties of astrophysical plasmas.