We study the response of a semi-bounded one-component fully degenerate electron plasma to an initial perturbation in the electrostatic limit. We show that the part of the electric potential corresponding to surface waves in such plasma can be represe
nted, at large times, as the sum of two terms, one term corresponding to conventional (Langmuir) surface waves and the other term representing a new type of surface waves resulting from specific analytic properties of degenerate plasmas dielectric response function. These two terms are characterized by different oscillation frequencies (for a given wave number), and, while the conventional terms amplitude decays exponentially with time, the new term is characterized by a slower, power-law decay of the oscillation amplitude and is therefore dominant at large times.
We study the guided modes in the wire medium slab taking into account both the nonlocality and losses in the structure. We show that due to the fact that the wire medium is an extremeley spatially dispersive metamaterial, the effect of nonlocality pl
ays a critical role since it results in coupling between the otherwise orthogonal guided modes. We observe both the effects of strong and weak coupling, depending on the level of losses in the system.
It is shown that the attractive force between ions in a degenerate quantum plasma, recently predicted by Shukla and Eliasson [Shukla, Eliasson, PRL 108, 165007 (2012), arXiv:1112.5556] using a generalized quantum hydrodynamical model, is dwarfed by t
he attractive force due to kinetic effects that cannot be accounted for in the previous model. This suggests that the problem of charge shielding in a degenerate quantum plasma should necessarily be a kinetic one, providing the dominant part of the attractive force.
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in a semi-bounded degenerate plasma (e.g., a metal) are studied using the quasiclassical mean-field kinetic model, taking into account the spatial dispersion of the plasma (due to quantum degeneracy of electrons) and
electron-ion (electron-lattice, for metals) collisions. SPP dispersion and damping are obtained in both retarded ($omega/k_zsim c$) and non-retarded ($omega/k_zll c$) regions, as well as in between. It is shown that the plasma spatial dispersion significantly affects the properties of SPPs, especially at short wavelengths (less than the collisionless skin depth, $lambdalesssim c/omega_{pe}$). Namely, the collisionless (Landau) damping of SPPs (due to spatial dispersion) is comparable to the purely collisional (Ohmic) damping (due to electron-lattice collisions) in a wide range of SPP wavelengths, e.g., from $lambdasim20$ nm to $lambdasim0.8$ nm for SPP in gold at T=293 K, and from $lambdasim400$ nm to $lambdasim0.7$ nm for SPPs in gold at T=100 K. The spatial dispersion is also shown to affect, in a qualitative way, the dispersion of SPPs at short wavelengths $lambdalesssim c/omega_{pe}$.
Surface plasmons (SP) in a semi-bounded quantum plasma with degenerate electrons (e.g., a metal) is considered, and some interesting consequences of electron Pauli blocking for the SP dispersion and temporal attenuation are discussed. In particular,
it is demonstrated that a semi-bounded degenerate plasma with a sharp boundary supports two types of SP with distinct frequencies and qualitatively different temporal attenuation, in contrast to a non-degenerate plasma that only supports one type of SP citep{Guernsey_1969}.
Potential (electrostatic) surface waves in plasma half-space with degenerate electrons are studied using the quasi-classical mean-field kinetic model. The wave spectrum and the collisionless damping rate are obtained numerically for a wide range of w
avelengths. In the limit of long wavelengths, the wave frequency $omega$ approaches the cold-plasma limit $omega=omega_p/sqrt{2}$ with $omega_p$ being the plasma frequency, while at short wavelengths, the wave spectrum asymptotically approaches the spectrum of zero-sound mode propagating along the boundary. It is shown that the surface waves in this system remain weakly damped at all wavelengths (in contrast to strongly damped surface waves in Maxwellian electron plasmas), and the damping rate nonmonotonically depends on the wavelength, with the maximum (yet small) damping occuring for surface waves with wavelength of $approx5pilambda_{F}$, where $lambda_{F}$ is the Thomas-Fermi length.
A nonlinear kinetic equation for nonrelativistic quantum plasma with electromagnetic interaction of particles is obtained in the Hartrees mean-field approximation. It is cast in a convenient form of Vlasov-Boltzmann-type equation with quantum interfe
rence integral, that allows for relatively straightforward modification of existing classical Vlasov codes to incorporate quantum effects (quantum statistics and quantum interference of overlapping particles wave functions), without changing the bulk of the codes. Such modification (upgrade) of existing Vlasov codes may provide a direct and effective path to numerical simulations of nonlinear electrostatic and electromagnetic phenomena in quantum plasmas, especially of processes where kinetic effects are important (e.g., modulational interactions and stimulated scattering phenomena involving plasma modes at short wavelengths or high-order kinetic modes, dynamical screening and interaction of charges in quantum plasma, etc.) Moreover, numerical approaches involving such modified Vlasov codes would provide a useful basis for theoretical analyses of quantum plasmas, as quantum and classical effects can be easily separated there.
A plasma becomes quantum when the quantum nature of its particles significantly affects its macroscopic properties. To answer the question of when the collective quantum plasma effects are important, a proper description of such effects is necessary.
We consider here the most common methods of description of quantum plasma, along with the related assumptions and applicability limits. In particular, we analyze in detail the hydrodynamic description of quantum plasma, as well as discuss some kinetic features of analytic properties of linear dielectric response function in quantum plasma. We point out the most important, in our view, fundamental problems occurring already in the linear approximation and requiring further investigation. (submitted to Physics-Uspekhi)
The role of quantum tunneling effect in the electron accretion current onto a negatively charged grain immersed in isotropic plasma is analyzed, within the quasiclassic approximation, for different plasma electron distribution functions, plasma param
eters, and grain sizes. It is shown that this contribution can be small (negligible) for relatively large (micron-sized) dust grains in plasmas with electron temperatures of the order of a few eV, but becomes important for nano-sized dust grains (tens to hundreds nm in diameter) in cold and ultracold plasmas (electron temperatures ~ tens to hundreds of Kelvin), especially in plasmas with depleted high-energy tails in the electron energy distribution.
The electrostatic shielding of a charged absorbing object (dust grain) in a flowing collisionless plasma is investigated by using the linearized kinetic equation for plasma ions with a point-sink term accounting for ion absorption on the object. The
effect of absorption on the attractive part of the grain potential is investigated. For subthermal ion flows, the attractive part of the grain potential in the direction perpendicular to the ion flow can be significantly reduced or completely destroyed, depending on the absorption rate. For superthermal ion flows, however, the effect of absorption on the grain attraction in the direction perpendicular to the ion flow is shown to be exponentially weak. It is thus argued that, in the limit of superthermal ion flow, the effect of absorption on the grain shielding potential can be safely ignored for typical grain sizes relevant to complex plasmas.
