Projection-operator methods for classical transport in magnetized plasmas. I. Linear response, the Braginskii equations, and fluctuating hydrodynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces projection-operator methods to derive and interpret classical fluid transport equations in magnetized plasmas, providing a more intuitive and concise approach to the Braginskii equations and including fluctuating forces.

Contribution

It presents a novel projection-operator framework for deriving and understanding the Braginskii transport equations, incorporating fluctuations and symmetries in magnetized plasma transport.

Findings

Projection-operator approach reproduces Braginskii equations.

Derived a generalized Langevin system with fluctuating forces.

Demonstrated Onsager symmetries in plasma transport.

Abstract

An introduction to the use of projection-operator methods for the derivation of classical fluid transport equations for weakly coupled, magnetized plasmas is given. In the present work, linear response is addressed. In the Schr\"odinger representation, projection onto the hydrodynamic subspace leads to the conventional Braginskii fluid equations, while the orthogonal projection leads to an alternative derivation of the Braginskii correction equations for the nonhydrodynamic part of the distribution function f. Although ultimately mathematically equivalent to Braginskii's calculations, the projection-operator approach provides a usefully intuitive way of discussing the derivation of transport equations and interpreting the significance of the various parts of the perturbed distribution function; it is also technically more concise. A special case of the Weinhold metric is used to provide a covariant representation of the formalism; this allows a succinct demonstration of the Onsager symmetries for classical transport. The Heisenberg representation is used to derive a generalized Langevin system whose mean recovers the Braginskii equations but that also includes fluctuating forces. Transport coefficients are simply related to the two-time correlation functions of those forces, and physical pictures of the various transport processes are naturally couched in terms of them. A number of appendices review the traditional Chapman-Enskog procedure; record results about the linearized Landau collision operator; discuss the covariant representation of the hydrodynamic projection; provide an example of the calculation of some transport effects; describe the decomposition of the stress tensor for magnetized plasma; introduce the linear eigenmodes of the Braginskii equations; and, with the aid of several examples, mention some caveats for the use of projection operators.