On the possibility of excitation heating of ions to high temperature.
Cyclic or chainlike inelastic collision processes are invoked as an hypothesis to explain the grossly nonthermodynamic properties of energetic carbon and gas-fed carbon arcs confined by magnetic fields. Elastic collisions between the fast electrons (upsilon_ > upsilon(+) but E_ << E(+)) and the hot ions appear to be only about one-tenth as efficient a process for heating the ions as the proposed multiple inelastic collision process, which we call excitation-heating. In addition, a revised treatment of the rate of energy transfer from hot carbon ions to the very cold electrons (upsilon_ < upsilon(+)) reduces the conventional ion cooling rate by a factor of about 6.
McNally
J R
JR
Thermonuclear Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
Skidmore
M R
MR
Jenkins
P M
PM
Francis
J E
JE