Collisional plasma relaxation in the field of a planar gravitational wave

The general relativistic kinetic theory is applied to calculate corrections to the distribution arising from Coulomb collisions of particles in the field of a planar gravitational wave. These corrections are used in corrections to the energy-momentum tensor and in deriving the collisional-damping decrements for gravitational waves for a Boltzmann plasma and for a plasma with degenerate electrons. The largest contribution to the damping decrement in a Boltzmann plasma comes from the ions colliding with the electrons; the decrement increases as T^–1/2. In a plasma with degenerate electrons, the decrement decreases linearly as the temperature falls and tends to zero at zero temperature.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 10, pp. 85–89, October, 1982.We wish to thank G. G. Ivanov for participation in discussion of the paper.