Thermodynamic Effects in Multiple-Temperature Plasma

In the infinite mass ratio limit, plasmas can reach a near steady-state with separate temperatures for electrons and ions. The thermodynamics of plasma under these quasi-equilibrium conditions is studied and the responses of the system to heating and compression on various timescales are discussed. Even in the collisionless limit, interaction terms arising from two-particle correlations are seen to mediate between electron and ion temperatures, affecting how input energy is partitioned between species.