Magnetohydrodynamic two-temperature equations for multicomponent plasma

The physics of plasmas of mixed composition is of increasing importance both in laboratory experiments and in space plasmas. This work is devoted to constructing from first principles a set of magnetohydrodynamic equations for a multicomponent plasma of arbitrary concentrations, overcoming some limitations of the classical system by S. I. Braginskii [Sov. Phys. JETP 6, 358 (1958)]. A procedure applicable when the ion species have very different atomic masses is developed and applied to produce a full set of transport coefficients. Our approach permits us to explain the discrepancy between Braginskii results and results obtained by direct numerical solution of the electron kinetic equation by E. M. Epperlein and M. G. Haines [Phys. Fluids. 29, 1029 (1986)]. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.