On the relaxation of anisotropic plasmas with dynamic shielding

The relaxation of a strongly anisotropic two-component-plasma is treated by using the Balescu-Lenard-equation, i.e. taking into account collective effects. The relaxation process is described by parallel and perpendicular temperatures as functions of time; it is assumed that the distribution functions remain elliptical. The result is that collective effects are only significant if the ratio of electron and ion temperatures is very small (<10^?4) or very large (>10⁺²).