On the applicability of the fluid approach in the description of electromagnetic wave scattering in plasmas

Abstract

Kinetic and fluid treatments of nonlinear wave interactions (wave mixing and electromagnetic wave scattering) in plasmas are compared and the difference between the two approaches is discussed. The nonlinear kinetic equation for cold plasmas is shown to yield the same expression for the current that induces scattered waves as the one obtained in the fluid approximation. Thus, Bindslev's conclusion (ibid., vol. 35, p. 1615 (1993)) that the fluid approach is inapplicable to the description of electromagnetic wave scattering in plasmas turns out to be erroneous.