2008/03/31 by Hanno Essén, Hanno Essen
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Magnetic confinement fusion research #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #physics.plasm-ph #physics.space-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/84/20011
published as EPL 84 (2008) pp.20011-1-5 (under a different title) · Error corrected, extensive rewrite, 4 pages, 1 figure
arxiv created 2008/03/31 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2020/11/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We assume a constant current density in a homogeneous one-component plasma of infinite extent and calculate the resulting magnetic energy per particle. Our starting point is the conserved approximately relativistic (Darwin) energy for a system of electromagnetically interacting particles that arises from the neglect of radiation. For the idealized model of a homogeneous one-component plasma the energy only depends on the particle canonical momenta and the vector potential. The vector potential is then calculated in terms of the canonical momenta using recent theoretical advances and the plasma Hamiltonian is obtained. The result can be understood either as due to the energy lowering caused by the attraction of parallel currents or, alternatively, as due to the inductive inertia associated with the flow of net current.