TIME SCALES IN THE DYNAMICS OF THE LORENTZ ELECTRON-GAS

The dynamics of the classical Lorentz electron gas acted upon by an ex ternal field is studied. The aim of the paper is to provide an instruc tive example of the application of the multiple time-scale method. The subtlety and the rich physical content of the problem show in the app earance of quite different stages in the evolution of the gas: switchi ng on effects of the field, quasistationary linear response regime, lo ng-time field dominated heating of the gas. The results reported here had been obtained previously in a different way.