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A plasma contains mobile charged species whose collective electromagnetic response matters. On scales large compared with the Debye length, positive and negative charge densities nearly cancel: this is quasineutrality, not the absence of electric currents or electric fields. For electrons of temperature $T_e$ and number density $n_e$, the characteristic plasma screening and oscillation scales areA collective plasma description requires many particles within a screening volume; long-wavelength, sufficiently slow behavior can often be described by magnetohydrodynamics with an appropriate fluid closure.

An individual particle feels the Lorentz force $q(\mathbf{E}+\mathbf{v}\times \mathbf{B})$. In a uniform magnetic field, its transverse motion gyrates while its parallel motion remains free, giving a helical path when both components are present. The nonrelativistic cyclotron frequency and gyroradius areWhen the system scale is much larger than $r_L$ and the relevant time scale longer than ${\Omega }_c^{-1}$, the field strongly organizes transport across it, provided collisions do not interrupt the gyromotion. A perpendicular electric field also gives the common guiding-centre drift ${\mathbf{v}}_E=\mathbf{E}\times \mathbf{B}/B^2$.

For a conducting fluid, the macroscopic Lorentz force density has the useful decompositionThese terms are magnetic pressure and magnetic tension. Magnetic tension resists bending, while magnetic-pressure gradients resist nonuniform compression. The plasma beta $\beta =2{\mu }_{0}p/B^2$ compares thermal and magnetic stresses.

With uniform magnetic diffusivity ${\eta }_m$, the resistive induction equation isIf the magnetic Reynolds number $R_m=UL/{\eta }_m\gg 1$, ideal magnetohydrodynamics applies approximately and magnetic flux freezing links the field geometry to fluid motion. Finite diffusivity permits field slippage and magnetic reconnection. Field tension supports Alfvén waves with $v_A=B/\sqrt{{\mu }_0\rho }$; coupled magnetic and gas compression also supports magnetosonic waves. These effects allow a field to transmit forces and angular momentum between distant parts of an astrophysical plasma.

Use Gaussian units, plane waves proportional to $e^{i\mathbf{k}\cdot \mathbf{r}-i\omega t}$, and the signed cyclotron frequency ${\Omega }_s=q_s{B}_0/(m_{s}c)$. Write ${\Omega }_e=e{B}_0/(m_{e}c)>0$ for its electron magnitude, so the signed electron value is $-{\Omega }_e$. Define the species plasma frequency by ${\omega }_{ps}^2=4\pi n_{0s}{q}_s^2/m_s$. The linearization of the cold Lorentz force equations givesSolving this linear system and using the species current density ${\mathbf{j}}_s=n_{0s}{q}_s{\mathbf{u}}_s$ gives the conductivity tensorThe magnetized cold-plasma dielectric tensor is $\mathbf{ϵ}=\mathbf{I}+(4\pi i/\omega ){\sum }_s{\mathbf{\sigma }}_s$. ThusAt the stated electron frequency scale, the ion contribution is smaller by $O(Z{m}_e/m_i)$ for $q_i=Ze$ and quasineutrality. To this accuracy,These expressions require negligible collisions and the cold ordering $k{v}_{\mathrm{th},s}\ll |\omega |$; sufficiently close to a cyclotron resonance, thermal broadening or collisions must also be retained.

Use Gaussian units and the kinetic magnetohydrodynamics equationstogether with species continuity equations, quasineutrality and the drift-kinetic equation. Here $p_{\perp },p_{\parallel }$ sum the species pressures. Interpret the thermal speed denominator in the source as the species mass $m_{\alpha }$, so $v_{\mathrm{th}\alpha }^2=2T_{0\alpha }/m_{\alpha }$ and the first adiabatic invariant is $\mu =v_{\perp }^2/(2B)$.

The specified Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution has zero mean motion and isotropic pressure, $p_{\perp 0}=p_{\parallel 0}=p_0$. All equilibrium scalars depend only on $x$, while ${\mathbf{b}}_0\cdot \nabla x=0$ and ${\mathbf{b}}_0\cdot \nabla B_0=0$. Therefore the equilibrium streaming and mirror terms of the drift-kinetic equation vanish. The remaining terms vanish because ${\mathbf{u}}_0=0$ and $E_{\parallel 0}=0$; the parallel electric constraint is also satisfied because the equilibrium parallel pressure gradient is zero. Species continuity equations and the induction equation are stationary, and quasineutrality holds by assumption.

It remains to check the perpendicular force balance. The radial magnetic pressure and magnetic tension giveThis is preciselyThus the Z-pinch is a steady solution of the stated kinetic magnetohydrodynamics system. Its equilibrium electric current is supplied by the small species drifts implicit in this approximation; zero leading common flow does not require zero electric current.

Choose the drift-kinetic equation in $(\mathbf{r},\mu ,v_{\parallel })$ with $v_{\parallel }$ the laboratory parallel velocity along the exact $\mathbf{b}$. To first order, before discarding terms small in the stated steep-gradient ordering, it isThe last term is the linear acceleration associated with the moving curved field. Terms quadratic in the perturbations have already been removed. A formulation using parallel velocity relative to the common flow gives the same physical result after transforming back to these variables.

The two mirror terms and the curvature acceleration are subleading here. Their relative sizes are controlled by $h\ll \delta p/p_0$ and $L_p/L_B,L_p/R\ll 1$. The field-direction perturbation multiplying the steep equilibrium gradient must remain:Using $u_x=-i\omega {\xi }_x$ and $\delta b_x=i{k}_{\parallel }{\xi }_x$ therefore gives the leading equationThe displaced branch satisfying quasineutrality has $\delta E_{\parallel }=0$ to this order: its species number densities are $\delta n_{\alpha }=-{\xi }_x{n}_{0\alpha }^{\prime }$, so ${\sum }_{\alpha }{q}_{\alpha }\delta n_{\alpha }=-{\xi }_x{\partial }_x{\sum }_{\alpha }{q}_{\alpha }{n}_{0\alpha }=0$. More explicitly, putting $\mathcal{D}=-i\omega +i{k}_{\parallel }{v}_{\parallel }$ givesAway from an independent longitudinal eigenfrequency, the summed susceptibility is nonzero, giving $\delta E_{\parallel }=0$. An independent longitudinal eigenmode is not forced by the interchange displacement. The required solution is thusThe apparent streaming denominator cancels identically, including at $\omega =k_{\parallel }{v}_{\parallel }$; this response has no leading Landau damping singularity.

To see the temperature and density contributions explicitly, differentiate at fixed $\mu ,v_{\parallel }$ and neglect $B_0^{\prime }$ at this order:The gyrotropic velocity-space measure is $d^{3}v=2\pi B_{0}d\mu d{v}_{\parallel }$. The species perpendicular plasma pressure and parallel plasma pressure are the momentsExplicit perturbations of the measure and of $\mu B$ produce terms proportional to $h$, which are subleading in these pressure moments; derivatives of the equilibrium measure produce the discarded $B_0^{\prime }$ terms. The remaining Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution integrals giveInsertion into b proves

Use quasineutrality, $n_e=Z{n}_i$. Multiplying the supplied collision time by the electron plasma frequency and using the preceding definition givesThus ${\tau }_{ei}\gg 2\pi /{\omega }_p$ requires $N_D\gg (2\pi /9.6)Z\ln \Lambda$; for ordinary $Z$ and $\ln \Lambda \sim 1$–$30$, this is a large plasma parameter. Many particles then collectively screen a charge, fluctuations in a Debye sphere are relatively small, and mean-field electrostatics descriptions become meaningful. A large plasma parameter is also associated with weak Coulomb coupling, well-separated screening and close-collision scales, and collective plasma oscillations surviving many oscillations before collisionally relaxing. Roughly, relative counting fluctuations scale as $N_D^{-1/2}$ and the ratio of interaction to thermal energy decreases as $N_D$ increases. Small $N_D$ signals that strong correlations can invalidate the simple weakly coupled plasma description.

Quasineutrality gives $n_e=4\times 10^{26}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$. Using the supplied $90^{\circ }$ collision-time expression and $\ln \Lambda =10$ givesThe printed absorption coefficient then yields $\kappa =1.62\times 10^2{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$. Since the unabsorbed fraction is $e^{-\kappa L}$,This uses exactly the coefficient specified by the paper and neglects reflection and changing plasma conditions. With $\nu =1/{\tau }_{ei}$ instead, the corresponding thickness is $2.14\mathrm{mm}$, illustrating the convention dependence discussed in part (c).