Available energy of plasmas with small fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper defines the available energy of plasmas with small fluctuations, deriving a general expression related to Helmholtz free energy, and provides explicit examples to illustrate the concept.

Contribution

It introduces a general formula for plasma available energy in nearly homogeneous conditions, linking it to thermodynamic free energy and expanding understanding of plasma energy limits.

Findings

Derived a general expression for plasma available energy

Linked available energy to Helmholtz free energy

Provided explicit examples demonstrating the concept

Abstract

The available energy of a plasma is defined as the maximum amount by which the plasma energy can be lowered by volume-preserving rearrangements in phase space, a so-called Gardner re-stacking. A general expression is derived for the available energy of a nearly homogeneous plasma and is shown to be closely related to the Helmholtz free energy, which it can never exceed. A number of explicit examples are given.