Computation of the Dielectric Tensor of a Maxwellian Plasma

摘要

Very good rational approximations for the plasma dispersion function Z(s) (FRIED and CONTE, 1961) have recently been derived by a modified Pade method (MARTIN and GONZALES, 1979; MARTIN et al., 1980; NEMETH et al., 1981). In this note we point out that the evaluation of the dielectric tensor of a Maxwellian plasma can be considerably simplified by the introduction of such approximants, which can be expanded in partial fractions. A computer code based on this method has been developed and found very useful in practical computations.