Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Oklahoma,
Norman, Oklahoma Considerable debate over the years has centered
on whether the rate of diffusion of electrons transverse to a
magnetic field in gaseous plasmas varies as B-1 or B-2. A body
of experience seemed to prove the former (1), while Boltzmann
equation derivations predicted the latter (2). No derivation of
the former was heretofore forthcoming, and so when a decade ago
experiments around a plasma beam (3, 4) seemed to describe
diffusion losses at a rate of B-2, the process of Bohm diffusion
(as it was called) seemed disproved. Nevertheless the numerous
and continuing references to anomalous losses and the offering
of Bohm diffusion as an explanation have kept the concept alive.
Recently the author believes he has succeeded in deriving the
Bohm diffusion coefficient by distorted free-path considerations
(5), and the question has therefore arisen as to why the beam
experiments should have yielded the results they do. The
difficulty may lie in