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Ponderomotive force of quasi-particles in a plasma

L. O. Silva·R. Bingham·J. M. Dawson·W. B. Mori
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Abstract

We derive the force exerted in the background plasma by an arbitrary distribution of non interacting quasi-particles, corresponding to either collective excitations of the plasma (plasmons, phonons) or em dressed particles (photons, neutrinos). Our approach is based on the effective Hamiltonian describing the quasi-classical dynamics of the individual particles in the presence of a background medium. We recover the usual results for the relativistic ponderomotive force of a photon gas, and we derive the force, due to weak interactions, exerted by the electron-neutrinos in a background medium containing electrons, positrons and neutrons with arbitrary distribution functions. Generalization to other background species and other neutrino flavors is also discussed.

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L. O. Silva, R. Bingham, J. M. Dawson, W. B. Mori. 1998-12-10. Ponderomotive force of quasi-particles in a plasma. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.59.2273

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