The effect of spin magnetization in the damping of electron plasma oscillations

Abstract

The effect of spin of particles in the propagation of plasma waves is studied using a semi-classical kinetic theory for a magnetized plasma. We focus in the simple damping effects for the electrostatic wave modes besides Landau damping. Without taking into account more quantum effects than spin contribution to Vlasov's equation, we show that spin produces a new damping or instability which is proportional to the zeroth order magnetization of the system. This correction depends on the electromagnetic part of the wave which is coupled with the spin vector.