Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2009
A kinetic model equation for an electron plasma is proposed. The principal new feature of the equation is an attempt to incorporate collision terms which model both short-range two-body scattering and many-body small-angle scattering. The equation is then used to study the time relaxation of a spatially uniform plasma. A simplified form of the model is finally used to analyse sound propagation in the plasma. Dispersion equations are derived and studied in several limiting cases. Landau damping in the small wave-number limit is shown to be less important than collisional damping for most plasmas.