An improved method to derive the kappa distribution in polytropic plasmas

TL;DR

This paper presents an improved method for deriving the kappa distribution in polytropic plasmas, clarifying conditions under which it can be obtained without additional assumptions, and exploring potential distributions in multi-component systems.

Contribution

The paper introduces an enhanced approach to derive the kappa distribution in polytropic plasmas, extending previous work and analyzing potential constraints in multi-component systems.

Findings

Kappa distribution can be derived from the polytropic equation of state in one dimension.

In higher dimensions, an energy dependence assumption is necessary.

Potential constraints differ between single-component and two-component plasmas.

Abstract

This paper studies sufficient conditions for deriving the kappa distribution in polytropic plasmas by an improved method compared with the previous work [R. Guo, Phys. Plasmas \textbf{27}, 122104 (2020)]. We find that the polytropic equation of state can lead to the kappa distribution without any other assumptions in one dimension. In higher dimensions, an extra assumption that the global distribution must only depend on the energy is still needed. In addition, the self-consistence of the electrostatic potential is investigated in such plasmas. The study implies that in single-component plasmas, the potential is constrained by the Lane-Emden equation. However, in two-component plasmas, any arbitrary potential could exist with a suitable background ion density. Finally, we discuss the connections between the kappa distribution and the polytrope.