On massless electron limit for a multispecies kinetic system with external magnetic field

We consider a three-dimensional kinetic model for a two species plasma consisting of electrons and ions confined by an external nonconstant magnetic field. Then we derive a kinetic-fluid model when the mass ratio $m_e/m_i$ tends to zero. Each species initially obeys a Vlasov-type equation and the electrostatic coupling follows from a Poisson equation. In our modeling, ions are assumed non-collisional while a Fokker-Planck collision operator is taken into account in the electron equation. As the mass ratio tends to zero we show convergence to a new system where the macroscopic electron density satisfies an anisotropic drift-diffusion equation. To achieve this task, we overcome some specific technical issues of our model such as the strong effect of the magnetic field on electrons and the lack of regularity at the limit. With methods usually adapted to diffusion limit of collisional kinetic equations and including renormalized solutions, relative entropy dissipation and velocity averages, we establish the rigorous derivation of the limit model

Diffusion and guiding center approximation for particle transport in strong magnetic fields

International audienceThe diffusion limit of the linear Boltzmann equation with a strong magnetic field is performed. The giration period of particles around the magnetic field is assumed to be much smaller than the collision relaxation time which is supposed to be much smaller than the macroscopic time. The limiting equation is shown to be a diffusion equation in the parallel direction while in the orthogonal direction, the guiding center motion is obtained. The diffusion constant in the parallel direction is obtained through the study of a new collision operator obtained by averaging the original one. Moreover, a correction to the guiding center motion is derived

The free path in a high velocity random flight process associated to a Lorentz gas in an external field

We investigate the asymptotic behavior of the free path of a variable density random flight model in an external field as the initial velocity of the particle goes to infinity. The random flight models we study arise naturally as the Boltzmann-Grad limit of a random Lorentz gas in the presence of an external field. By analyzing the time duration of the free path, we obtain exact forms for the asymptotic mean and variance of the free path in terms of the external field and the density of scatterers. As a consequence, we obtain a diffusion approximation for the joint process of the particle observed at reflection times and the amount of time spent in free flight.Comment: 30 page