Magnetic diffusivity
Encyclopedia
The magnetic diffusivity is a parameter in plasma physics. It appears in the Magnetic Reynolds number
. The magnetic diffusivity is defined as:.
Magnetic Reynolds number
The Magnetic Reynolds number is a dimensionless group thatoccurs in magnetohydrodynamics. It gives an estimate of the effects of magnetic advection to magnetic diffusion, and is typically defined by:where* U is a typical velocity scale of the flow...
. The magnetic diffusivity is defined as:.
- is the permeability of free spaceVacuum permeabilityThe physical constant μ0, commonly called the vacuum permeability, permeability of free space, or magnetic constant is an ideal, physical constant, which is the value of magnetic permeability in a classical vacuum...
. - is the plasma conductivity due to CoulombCoulomb collisionA Coulomb collision is a binary elastic collision between two charged particles interacting through their own Electric Field. As with any inverse-square law, the resulting trajectories of the colliding particles is a hyperbolic Keplerian orbit...
or neutral collisions.- is the electronElectronThe electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
densityDensityThe mass density or density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ . In some cases , density is also defined as its weight per unit volume; although, this quantity is more properly called specific weight...
. - is the electron chargeElementary chargeThe elementary charge, usually denoted as e, is the electric charge carried by a single proton, or equivalently, the absolute value of the electric charge carried by a single electron. This elementary charge is a fundamental physical constant. To avoid confusion over its sign, e is sometimes called...
. - is the electron massMassMass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
. - is the collision frequency.
- is the electron