Fluid and kinetic parameters near the plasma-sheath boundary for finite Debye lengths

In a recent paper by Kuhn et al. [Phys. Plasmas 13, 013503 (2006)], it has been demonstrated that in a plasma, the polytropic coefficient γ is a spatially varying quantity rather than a global constant as usually assumed in fluid theory. Assuming cold ion sources and using the asymptotic two-scale approximation (in which the ratio of the Debye length over the characteristic presheath length, e, is set to zero), it was found that the γ profile exhibits a sharp peak (with values roughly between 6 and 8) at the plasma-sheath boundary. In the present paper, it is shown that in a finite e approach, this sharp peak is smoothed to a regular maximum, which for increasing e (e.g., decreasing plasma density) decreases and finally disappears. In any case, assumptions like γ=1 and/or γ=3, which are customarily encountered in the context of fluid approaches, are disproved. Although the present results were obtained for collisionless plasmas, it is reasonable to assume that the behavior uncovered holds qualitatively fo...