THEORY OF PLASMONS IN QUASI-ONE-DIMENSIONAL DEGENERATE PLASMAS

An analysis of collective longitudinal electrostatic plasma excitation s in quasi-one-dimensional degenerate plasmas is presented using the d ielectric function in the random phase approximation. Analytical conti nuation of the dielectric function into the lower energy half plane al lows us to compute the complete spectrum of the collective excitations , including frequencies and damping or growth rates. In contrast to tw o- and three-dimensional plasmas, a multicomponent quasi-one-dimension al system at zero temperature is found to exhibit one undamped plasmon mode for each component. The conditions for the occurrence of unstabl e modes are investigated and the influence of temperature and collisio ns on the results is discussed.