Non-local electron kinetics in a weakly ionized plasma

Summary form only given: electron kinetics in a weakly ionized plasma is analyzed under the condition such that the electron mean free path is not small compared to the characteristic length scale of electric field inhomogeneity. In this case the standard two-term approximation is not valid and higher order spherical harmonics in the perturbed electron distribution function have to be taken into account. The electron distribution function is represented by an infinite series of spherical functions. This results in the infinite hierarchy of coupled equations for separate angular harmonics that can be reduced to an infinite continued fraction. This continued fraction is approximated by a simple algebraic function for a case of low frequencies, /spl omega/\n\n\t\t