What is quasineutral gas? In plasma physics, what exactly quasineutral means? In definition of plasma, it is written that plasma is a quasineutral gas of charged and neutral particles which exhibit collective behaviour.
Plasma Physics: What is Quasineutrality in Plasma?
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Best Answer
To put it simply:
Plasma is described as a quasi-neutral gas consisting of ions and electrons. You know that electrons are negatively charged and ions (typically ionised by losing an electron) are positive. To sustain a stable plasma, it must be subject to an electric field (lets say between an alternating bias of electrodes) and at a gas pressure. The alternating field is accelerating the electrons rapidly in the direction of the field, but the ions are more massive and more-or-less move at random due to their higher inertia.
Now the definition of "quasi-" basically means something is 'apparently what it says it is, but not really'. So when we think of a plasma, it is fluctuating between net-negative and net-positive charge very quickly with all these charges flying about but if you squint and take an average it looks neutral, but not really.
That is what quasi-neutral means, macroscopically it is easier to say it is "pretty much neutral", rather than try to put a name to the high energy chaos it takes to sustain a plasma.