Anomalous Resistance in Critical Ionization Velocity Phenomena

Abstract

To describe the generation of the electric field by a discontinuity of the Hall current, an equation of the third order is obtained using the electric charge conservation and Ohm laws. The solutions of this equation are used to model the electric impulses detected in experiments aimed to verify Alfven's hypothesis on the critical ionization velocity at collisions of neutral gas with magnetized plasma. A quantitative agreement with experiment is attained and the main features of measured signals are modeled under an assumption on the strong anomalous resistance behind the discontinuity. Apparently, the anomalous resistance occurs due to trapping the current carriers by a small-scaled modulation of the electric field.