31st EPS Conference on Plasma Phys. London, 28 June - 2 July 2004 ECA Vol.28G, P-4.

207 (2004)

Nonlocal electron transport in degenerate plasmas

S. Mesbah1, K. Bendib-Kalache1, A. Bendib1 and G. Matthieussent2
1

Laboratoire Electronique Quantique, Facult de Physique, USTHB, BP 32 El-Alia, 16111 Bab Ezzouar Alger, Algrie. 2 Laboratoire de Physique des Gaz et des Plasmas, Universit Paris-Sud XI, Bt. 210, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France. Abstract The nonlocal electron transport is analyzed to construct hydrodynamic equations to study the non equilibrium behavior of a degenerate electron gas in plasmas. Electron transport is modeled by the semiclassical Boltzmann equation where collisions processes are described by the relaxation operator. The Boltzmann equation is analytically solved in the diffusive approximation and the nonlocal transport coefficients are deduced.

I Introduction Understanding nonlocal transport in a degenerate electron gas is of a great importance in many physical situations such as in inertial confinement fusion, in white dwarf stars and in metal surface. The hydrodynamic equations provide a powerful tool in analyzing the properties of an inhomogeneous degenerate electron system. These equations are obtained by taking different velocity moments of the Boltzmann kinetic equation which E E describe at time t the evolution of the one-particle distribution function in phase space *r , p + . The untruncated hierarchy of such equations is completely equivalent to the Boltzmann equation and all kinetic informations are not lost in such a hierarchy. Usually, the infinite E system is truncated to the first three equations, for the density n*r , t + , the flow velocity E E E V *r , t + and the temperature T *r , t + . The higher order moments computed from the kinetic theory in terms of the lower moments constitute the closure relations of these fluid equations. The aim of this work is to compute the nonlocal transport coefficients of partially degenerate electron gases.

II. The kinetic model The basic equation of our model is the Boltzmann equation that include the electronelectron and the electron-ion collision contributions. In planar geometry and steady state approximation it reads

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vx

f e f E / ? C ei * f +- C ee * f + x me v x

(1)

where f *x, v x , v + is the electron distribution function (DF) and the other variables have their usual meaning. In Eq. (1) the collisions relaxes the DF towards the Fermi-Dirac distribution function g /o f FD ? 1- exp T e
/1

(2)

where g , is the electron kinetic energy and o is the chemical potential. The anisotropic electron-ion collision operator is modeled by the Lee and More model [1], i.e., C ei * f +? /p ei *v + f , where p ei *v +? ne Ze ln N / 4rg 0 me v
4 2 2

is the electron-ion collision

frequency, Z is the ion charge, n e is the electron density and ln N is the Coulomb logarithm. The quantum effects in the cross section are included in ln N [1]. For simplicity
1/ 2 we assume that C ee * f +? /p ee * f / f FD + and p ee ?c *Z +p ei *v t + where v t ? *Te / me + is the

thermal velocity. The parameter c *Z + is defined to recover the transport properties in the nondegenerate electron gas limit [2]. We rewrite Eq. (1) on the fluid velocity frame E V * x +?V * x +x and expand the DF on the Legendre polynomial basis
E f *v, x +? f n *v +Pn *v x / v + obtaining, in the diffusive and the Lorentz approximations, the n ?0

following set of equations, 2 M 1 f FD */10 F3/ 2 - 6 F1/ 2 y + 2 M 1 f FD *6 F1/ 2 / 2 F/1/ 2 y + 2 1/ 2 f 1 vt y / vt / vt 2 3 3 3 x y 5F/1/ 2 F3/ 2 / 9*F1/ 2 + x y 5 F/1/ 2 F3/ 2 / 9*F1/ 2 +2 x (3) ? /p ee * f 0 / f FD +
2 1

2 ev t y 8 2 1/ 2 f 0 1/ 2 f 2 vt y vt y / 3 Te 15 3 x x

1/ 2

f FD y

E ? /p ei *v + f 1

(4)

4 f FD dV 8 1/ 2 f 1 y ? /p ei *v + f 2 / vt y x 3 5 y dx 15 where y ? g / Te , F j are the Fermi-Dirac integrals and we used the notation

m Mn m

(5) ? y f n dy .
0

We should note that the invariance properties of the collision operators have been included in Eq. (3).

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III The transport coefficients We have solved analytically Eqs. (3)-(5) for weak nonlocal effects, i.e., n ei >1 , x where n ei ? v t /p ei *v t + , and computed the explicit expression of the components of the DF, f 0 / f 2 . Then we have deduced the non-vanishing components of the stress tensor R xx , the electron-ion momentum transfer R x and of the heat flux q x . For convenience we present the results in the Fourier space
2

*x

k + and at the lower order with respect to the small

parameter *n ei k +2 , the local quantities are

loc qx 2 40 F4 16*F3 + 1/ *k +? / 3 2 F1/ 2 15F2 F4

n e Te ikT mep ei *v t + e

(6)

256 F3 ne Te loc R xx *k +? / 45 2 F p *v + ikV t 1/ 2 ei Rx

loc

(7)

*k +? / /

5 F3/ 2 3F1/ 2

4 F3 1 F/1 n e ikTe / me n ep ei *v t +V . 3F2 2 2 F1/ 2

(8)

2 Taking into account the nonlocal contributions proportional to *kn ei + , we obtain 2 /13F - 88 F3 F9 / 2 / 16 F7 / 2 *F3 + 11/ 2 3F2 2 2 *F2 +2 nloc loc q x *k +? q x *~ Te +1/ 16*F3 +2 15 F4 1/ 15 F2 F4

2 2 k n / c *Z + ei / (9)

64 13F11/ 2 44 F9 / 2 / 15 6 3F1/ 2 3 5 F1/ 2

n T *kn +2 V e e ei

16F3 11F9/ 2 11F9/ 2 2F7/ 2 *kn +2 / ei 6F / F 5F3 loc 16 2 3F1/ 2 nloc loc 3 2 2 *knei + (10) Rx *k +? Rx *~V +1/ - Rx *~T +1/ 5F *F/1 / F1/2 + 15 3 3/ 2 4F3 / 3F1 3F2
R xx
nloc

*k +? R loc *~V +/ xx

64 13F11/ 2 44 F9 / 2 / 15 6 3F1/ 2 3 5 F1/ 2

n T *kn +2 . e e ei

(11)

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The nonlocal part of the viscosity coefficient less important than the other contributions has been neglected in Eq. (11). We note in Eqs. (9)-(11) that the nonlocal effects reduce the transport coefficients and that the off-diagonal coefficients verify the Onsager symmetry. Converting back to the real space Eqs. (9)-(11) we obtain expressions corresponding to integro-differential operators. The resulting transport quantities constitute reliable closure relations for the hydrodynamic equations to describe inhomogeneous degenerate electron gas.

References [1] Y. T. Lee and R. M. More, Phys. Fluids 27, 1273 (1984). [2] L. Spitzer and R. Hrm, Phys. Rev. 89, 977 (1953).

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Comit Mixte dEvaluation et de Prospective (CMEP project 02 MDU 548).