VLASOV TERM FOR A GAS OF COMPOSITE-PARTICLES

In the framework of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, we describe atoms as an assembly of nuclei and electrons. Concepts needed to recover an atomic description and to derive kinetic equations have been presented in a previous paper and are used here for deriving the Vlasov term for low temperature polarized hydrogen and unpolarized helium four gases. The structure of the Vlasov term turns out to be different from the structure obtained from a more phenomenological point of view where the entities are the atoms with an interaction potential. No concept of a global character, such as the boson or fermion nature of the particles, emerges for the atoms for the Vlasov term for which contributions arise from the coupling of the Coulomb interaction and quantum statistical effects linked to the electrons and nuclei. © 1990.