LONG-TIME BEHAVIOR OF THE LORENTZ ELECTRON-GAS IN A CONSTANT, UNIFORM ELECTRIC-FIELD

The long-time behavior of the Lorentz electron gas is studied in the presence of a uniform external field. A discussion of the rigorous solution of the one-dimensional Boltzmann equation is followed by the derivation of the asymptotic form of the velocity distribution in an arbitrary number of dimensions. The system is shown to absorb energy from the field without bounds, which excludes the usually assumed steady state with finite thermal energy density. © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation.