Magnetic fields can be generated in plasmas by the Biermann battery when the electric field produced by the electron pressure gradient has a curl. The commonly employed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model of the Biermann battery breaks down when the electron distribution function is distorted away from Maxwellian. Using both MHD and kinetic simulations of a laser-plasma interaction relevant to inertial confinement fusion we have shown that this distortion can reduce the Biermann-producing electric field by around 50%. More importantly, the use of a flux limiter in an MHD treatment to deal with the effect of the non-Maxwellian electron distribution on electron thermal transport leads to a completely unphysical prediction of the Biermann-producing electric field and so results in erroneous predictions for the generated magnetic field. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)’.

中文翻译：

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比尔曼电池磁流体动力学方法的不足

当电子压力梯度产生的电场具有卷曲时，比尔曼电池可以在等离子体中产生磁场。当电子分布函数偏离 Maxwellian 时，Biermann 电池常用的磁流体动力学 (MHD) 模型就会失效。使用 MHD 和与惯性约束聚变相关的激光-等离子体相互作用的动力学模拟，我们已经表明这种畸变可以将产生比尔曼的电场减少约 50%。更重要的是，在 MHD 治疗中使用通量限制器来处理非麦克斯韦电子分布对电子热传输的影响会导致对产生比尔曼的电场的完全非物理预测，从而导致对产生的磁场。