High-Voltage Ionized Gas with Spherical Cathode Emission

Abstract

We consider a plasma that is created by a high voltage difference, which is known as a Townsend gas discharge. The plasma is confined to the region between two concentric spheres, one of which is a cathode and the other an anode. Ion-electron pairs are created by collisions inside the plasma. Additional electrons enter the plasma by collisions of ions with the cathode. We prove under certain conditions that there are many steady states exhibiting gas discharge, beginning with a `sparking' voltage. In fact, there is an analytic one-parameter family of them that connects the non-ionized gas to a plasma with arbitrarily high ionization or arbitrarily high potential, or else the family ends at an `anti-sparking' voltage.