Reduced One-Fluid GENERIC Closure from Relativistic Moment Kinetics

TL;DR

This paper derives a simplified relativistic plasma model using a moment hierarchy reduction within the GENERIC thermodynamic framework, capturing both reversible electromagnetic dynamics and slow thermodynamic relaxation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel reduced one-fluid plasma model that incorporates reversible electromagnetic and irreversible thermodynamic processes within the GENERIC structure.

Findings

Fast modes recover standard gyrotropic cold-plasma response.

Slow mode drives gradual drift of electromagnetic spectrum.

Model includes explicit reversible charge degree of freedom.

Abstract

In this work we derive a reduced one-fluid plasma model from the relativistic Vlasov--Boltzmann--Maxwell system using a moment hierarchy reduction combined with strong-guide-field anisotropic ordering. The unresolved higher-moment sector of the hierarchy is projected onto its dominant slow thermodynamic mode, producing a scalar regulator variable that represents a coarse-grained combination of charge imbalance, pressure anisotropy, and irreversible kinetic production channels. The resulting reduced state vector admits a GENERIC (General Equation for Non-Equilibrium Reversible--Irreversible Coupling) representation in which the reversible sector reproduces reduced electromagnetic field-line dynamics while the irreversible sector governs slow thermodynamic relaxation. Linearization yields a pair of electromagnetic eigenmodes together with an additional real thermodynamic eigenvalue. The fast modes recover the standard gyrotropic cold-plasma response, including familiar limits such as whistler dispersion, while the slow mode drives gradual drift of the effective electromagnetic spectrum and provides a reduced mechanism for variability in relativistic magnetized plasmas with slowly evolving macroscopic equilibrium. The previous 3-field model captured only the thermodynamic slow-mode sector, whereas the fully closed extended GENERIC model also contains the explicit reversible nonneutral charge degree of freedom, whose frozen-thermodynamic limit recovers the nonneutral whistler-Alfven equations as a strict subset. The model is formulated within the GENERIC framework, ensuring consistency with first-principles nonequilibrium thermodynamics.