Although I am no expert in plasma physics, I am quite fascinated by the topic and I do have some questions. The first question that I have is:

 

Is the temperature of the electrons or the ions in a small volume of an anisotropic plasma better expressed as a rank 2 tensor or a rank 1 tensor (vector) as opposed to a scalar?

 

I know that the magnitude of the temperature should always be a scalar. However, I think that the temperature of the electrons is related to the velocity as in K[math]^{ }_{b}[/math]T[math]^{ }_{e}[/math]=M[math]^{ }_{e}[/math]V[math]^{2}_{e}[/math]

 

Where K[math]_{b}[/math] represents Boltzmann's Constant

 

Because the velocity of the particles in an anisotropic plasma have a directional bias, it would also seem that the temperature would also have a directional bias and give different readings when measured along different axes. If the directional bias favors an imaginary surface, then it seems like a 3 dimensional rank 2 tensor would give the most accurate description of the temperature.

 

I am only asking this because I honestly don't know the answer. Thanks:-)

I think it will be a scalar temperature field T(r,t).

 

Sometimes, if the electron and ion subsystems are not in "good" contact, they may have different Te anf Ti. But any temperature is a scalar.

Edited October 18, 200916 yr by Bob_for_short