Available energy of plasmas with small fluctuations

P. Helander; R. J. J. Mackenbach

doi:10.1017/s0022377824000746

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arXiv · 2405.12599

Available energy of plasmas with small fluctuations

P. Helander·R. J. J. Mackenbach

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Abstract

The available energy of a plasma is defined as the maximum amount by which the plasma energy can be lowered by volume-preserving rearrangements in phase space, a so-called Gardner re-stacking. A general expression is derived for the available energy of a nearly homogeneous plasma and is shown to be closely related to the Helmholtz free energy, which it can never exceed. A number of explicit examples are given.

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P. Helander, R. J. J. Mackenbach. 2024-05-21. Available energy of plasmas with small fluctuations. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022377824000746

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