Energy Transfer Between Charged Particles by Coulomb Collisions

The theory of energy transfer between charged particles in a fully ionized gas is reviewed, and calculations are made of the rate at which energy is transferred from electrons at a temperature T to cooler ions. The interaction between ion and electron is assumed to be of the Debye form (Ze/r) exp (-r/ lambda ), where lambda is the Debye shielding length. It is suggested that future improvements of the theory of Coulomb interaclions in ionized gases are likely to be made in two ways: through employing an effective potential derived on the basis of quantum statistics for the electrons and through improvements in the two-body approximation to the many-body problem. (auth