ANNIHILATION OF COLLISION DAMPING IN THE RAMSAUER GASES,

A calculation of the dispersion of electrostatic waves in Argon shows that damping dips to the level of collision-free Landau damping at an electron energy which, contrary to expectations, far exceeds that of the Ramsauer minimum. To assess the combined effect of Landau damping and collision damping on electrostatic waves, consideration is given to a weakly ionized gas at moderate pressures so that the electrons move collectively in a background of infinitely heavy ions and the only relevant stochastic process consists of elastic collisions between electrons and infinitely heavy atoms. Author