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D. T. Woods (SSL/UCB and LLNL), T. E. Holzer (HAO/UCAR)
We compute the density and temperature of a multicomponent plasma consisting of electrons, protons, ionized, helium, and a trace minor ion species (carbon). The equations of force and energy balance are developed allowing for the possibility that the velocity and temperature of each species are different. For the case of downflows, we find that the minor ion temperature can be significantly hotter than the electron temperature, and significant abundance enhancements can occur due to the slow down of the minor ions from the effect of the thermal force. The minor ion temperature enhancements relative to the electron temperature can have implications for the computation of detailed line profiles. Also, the effect of the thermal force may be of importance to studies of the emission from asymetrically heated loops in which the minor ion abundance will be enhanced in the downflowing leg and diminished in the upward flowing leg. This would tend to make the downflowing side appear brighter in a given line, and therefore contribute to the production of a net redshift in a spatially unresolved loop.
This research is supported in part by NASA grant NAG5-7929.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: tod@eaglevail.llnl.gov