Nonlocal transport in magnetized and multi-species plasmas: heat conduction and beyond

A reduced kinetic method (RKM) for describing nonlocal transport in magnetized and multi-species plasmas is derived from first principles and considered in a 1D3V geometry. This RKM uses the linearized Landau collision operator, which can be shown to match the full, first-principles collision operator even in nonlocal transport scenarios where sharp gradients are present. Nonlocal behaviour is captured by the RKM for the full set of transport fluxes of Braginskii’s seminal work [1], namely the Righi-Leduc, Peltier, Ettingshausen, Nernst, cross-Nernst, friction, cross-friction, and viscous stress terms. A novel nonlocal effect on current-driven heat flux (Braginskii’s q^u) is found. Nonlocal transport in ionic mixtures is also described by the RKM, including ordinary, thermo-, and baro-diffusion and enthalpy flux, with novel nonlocal features associated with multiple species as opposed to single species [2].



References

[1] S. I. Braginskii, Reviews of plasma physics, Consultants Bureau, New York, 1965, p.205 (1965).

[2] N. T. Mitchell, D. A. Chapman, C. J. McDevitt, M. P. Read, and G. Kagan, A reduced kinetic method for investigating non-local ion heat transport in ideal multi-species plasmas, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 66, 075005 (2024).