The short vacuum arc. II. Model and theoretical aspects

For pt.I see ibid., vol.16, no.3, p.342-7, June 1988. A physical model is presented of the development of a short cathode-anode vacuum arc, from the moment of electrode separation to the final state, a cathode-autonomous vacuum arc. Although the highly nonstationary initial phase is accessible only to qualitative reasoning, the analysis of the stationary arc is treated quantitatively, accounting for anode influence using an existence diagram. The cathode-autonomous phase is previously known in the literature. Results for the phase transitions, arc appearance, and arc motion agree qualitatively with previous observations (reported in Part I)