Analytical approximation to collisional distributions in mirror plasmas

Distribution functions in velocity in a collisiondominated mirror plasma can be obtained numerically by solving the appropriate Fokker-Planck equations [1]. Under well-tested assumptions [2,3] these equations a r e azimuthally invariant and approximately separable in the v and 6 components of velocity, where , u ≡ cos θ = v∥ /v and v∥ is in the direction of the local mirror field.