A self-adjoint form of linearized Coulomb colision operator for energetic ions

Abstract

A self-adjoint form of linearized Coulomb collision operator for energetic ions is obtained. Background electron and ion species are assumed to have Maxwellian distributions with different temperatures. The result can be used in the kinetic investigations of collisional effects on the energetic ion behavior, including variational studies of the energetic ion Fokker-Planck equation. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.