Thermally Inhomogeneous Plasma Column

Abstract

Theoretical investigations of the cylindrical collision dominated plasma column in general use Schottky's assumption of constant temperatures. This assumption definitely breaks down with increasing current. Our investigation accounts for the temperature inhomogenities. The balances for the first three momenta of the three particle components are reduced to a system of two coupled differential equations including all temperature effects. These equations reveal a similarity law. They are solved numerically with the help of a computer. The radial density and temperature distributions together with the characteristic of the plasma column are presented and compared with Schottky's relations. The results provide the basis of the ``thermal instability'' calculated in a subsequent paper.