Tomography of ion and atom velocities in plasmas

Abstract

The tomographic equation of the velocity of heavy particles in plasma has been derived using the relation of the velocity distribution with the Doppler shift of the spectral lines. This equation is correct for non-Maxwellian velocity distributions and for arbitrary plasma flow. The tomographic equation of velocity is reduced to a vector analog of the Radon equation by division of the flow field into rotational and potential parts. It is shown that only a rotational part can be inverted. This approach has been tested by inversion of azimuthal velocity of the ions in modelling and plasma centrifuge experiment.