plasmapy.formulary.collisions.coulomb

Calculation of Coulomb logarithms and cross-sections.

Coulomb collisions are collisions where the interaction force is conveyed via the electric field, instead of any kind of contact force. These collisions usually result in relatively small deflections of particle trajectories. However, given that there are many charged particles in a plasma, one has to take into account the cumulative effects of many such collisions.

This module includes functions for handling Coulomb collisions ranging from weakly coupled (low density) to strongly coupled (high density) regimes.

Functions

Coulomb_cross_section(impact_param)	Cross-section for a large angle Coulomb collision.
Coulomb_logarithm(T, n_e, species[, z_mean, ...])	Compute the Coulomb logarithm.

Example notebooks

Coulomb logarithms