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Updated: May 13, 2026

Non-equilibrium Microwave Plasma for Efficient High Temperature Chemistry
Published on: August 1, 2017
Particle model for nonlocal heat transport in fusion plasmas
H Bufferand1, G Ciraolo, Ph Ghendrih
1Aix-Marseille Université, Laboratoire M2P2-CNRS UMR 7340, 38, rue Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 13451 Marseille, France.
Abstract:
We present a simple stochastic, one-dimensional model for heat transfer in weakly collisional media as fusion plasmas. Energies of plasma particles are treated as lattice random variables interacting with a rate inversely proportional to their energy schematizing a screened Coulomb interaction. We consider both the equilibrium (microcanonical) and nonequilibrium case in which the system is in contact with heat baths at different temperatures. The model exhibits a characteristic length of thermalization that can be associated with an interaction mean free path and one observes a transition from ballistic to diffusive regime depending on the average energy of the system. A mean-field expression for heat flux is deduced from system heat transport properties. Finally, it is shown that the nonequilibrium steady state is characterized by long-range correlations.
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