ONE-DIMENSIONAL VLASOV-MAXWELL EQUILIBRIA

The purpose of this paper is to show that the Vlasov equilibrium of a plasma of charged particles in an electromagnetic field is closely rel ated to a fluid equilibrium, where only a few moments of the velocity distribution of the plasma are considered. In this fluid equilibrium t he electric field should be calculated from Ohm's law, rather than the Poisson equation. In practice, only one-dimensional equilibria are tr eated, because the symmetry makes this case tractable. The emphasis he re is on gaining a better understanding of the subject, but an alterna te way of doing the calculations is suggested. It is shown that partic le distributions can be found that are consistent with any reasonable electromagnetic field profile.