Generalized Ohm's Laws for Relativistically Streaming Plasmas

Abstract

A theoretical framework is given for treating energy dissipation and the associated diffusion of magnetic field lines resulting from 'frictional' interactions between different species in plasmas in which the species have relativistic streaming velocities. The plasmas are not necessarily neutral. One result is a form for generalized Ohm's laws. Details are given for binary plasmas, with particular attention paid to the analysis of inertial effects. Some remarks are made on the relevance of the results to pulsar magnetospheres.