(Harvard University, 1967) Woodman Pollitt, Ronald Francisco
This thesis is concerned with the theory of incoherent scattering by a plasma, i. e., with the statistical description of the electromagnetic waves scattered by the termal electron density fluctuations in a plasma which has been illuminated by anelectromagnetic wave of certain frequency. We have treated the problema starting from first principles, tacking a new approach and removing in the process some of the limitations inherent in other approaches taken so far for the solution of this problema. We have used this approach to solve, uo to the inclusión of some numerical results, the pending problema of the effect of ion-ion “Coulomb collisions” on the ion gyro-resonances predicted by existent collision less theories; this is an important aspect of the theory in connection with the application of incoherent scattering for the study of the ionosphere.