NONLINEAR INVERSE BREMSSTRAHLUNG ABSORPTION AND NONEXTENSIVE THERMOSTATISTICS

We show that recent experimental data exhibiting a non-Maxwellian elec tron velocity distribution resulting from inverse bremsstrahlung absor ption in plasma, can be satisfactorily fitted by a statistical distrib ution that emerges naturally from a nonextensive thermostatistical for malism that focuses situations where long-range forces (like the unscr eened Coulombian ones) are present. This comparison shows that a power -law distribution for the electron velocity can describe the data as e qually well as the flat-topped one used in the literature. Although th e agreement with the experimental results is quite satisfactory, more sophisticated experiments would be necessary in order to point, withou t any doubt, to the real distribution. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.