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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Instability-enhanced collisional effects and Langmuir's paradox
S D Baalrud1, J D Callen, C C Hegna
1Department of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1609, USA. sdbaalrud@wisc.edu
Abstract:
Anomalously fast equilibration of the electron distribution function to a Maxwellian in gas-discharge plasmas with low temperature and pressure, i.e., Langmuir's paradox, may be explained by electron scattering via an instability-enhanced collective response and hence fluctuations arising from convective ion-acoustic instabilities near the discharge boundaries.
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