Kinetic Approach to the Electrical Conductivity in a Partially Ionized Hydrogen Plasma

The electrical conductivity is investigated for a partially ionized hydrogen plasma, starting from a generalized quantum kinetic equation with three particle collision integrals. To take into account plasma effects, screened potentials are used. The transport cross sections of the considered two and three particle scattering processes are calculated by perturbative solution of the Lippmann-Schwinger equations for the T-matrices up to the second Born approximation. In connection with a mass action law the influence of the electron-electron and the elastic electron-atom scattering is discussed. The pressure ionization (Mott-effect) is described by a minimum-behaviour of the electrical conductivity.