Issue |
A&A
Volume 428, Number 1, December II 2004
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 1 - 19 | |
Section | Astrophysical processes | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20034208 | |
Published online | 23 November 2004 |
Covariant gyrokinetic description of relativistic plasmas
1
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
2
Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy e-mail: M.Tessarotto@cmfd.univ.trieste.it
Received:
18
August
2003
Accepted:
20
July
2004
A fundamental aspect of many plasma-related
astrophysical problems is the kinetic description of magnetized
relativistic plasmas in intense gravitational fields, such as in
accretion disks around compact gravitating bodies. The goal of
this paper is to formulate a gyrokinetic description for a
Vlasov-Maxwell plasma within the framework of general relativity.
A closed set of relativistic gyrokinetic equations, consisting of
the collisionless gyrokinetic equation and corresponding
expressions for the four-current density, is derived for an
arbitrary four-dimensional coordinate system. General relativity
effects are taken into account via the tetrad formalism. The
guiding-center dynamics of charged particles and the gyrokinetic
transformation are obtained accurate to the second order of the
ratio of the Larmor radius to the nonuniformity scale length. The
wave terms with arbitrary wavelength
are described in the second-order (nonlinear) approximation with
respect to the amplitude of the wave. The same approximations are
used in the derivation of the gyrophase-averaged Maxwell
equations. The derivation is based on the perturbative Lagrangian
approach with a fully relativistic, four-dimensional covariant
formulation. Its results improve on existing limitations of the
gyrokinetic theory.
Key words: plasmas / relativity / gravitation
© ESO, 2004
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