{
  "abstract": "Weak dissipation can control wave propagation, mode competition, and instability thresholds in plasmas, yet the physical origin of large branch-to-branch differences in collisional damping is often obscured by dielectric-tensor calculations. We show that weak collisional damping in cold plasmas is governed by wave-energy partition. In the one-rate cold-plasma model, the damping rate of a collisionless eigenmode is exactly the collision frequency multiplied by the fraction of the total wave energy stored in plasma motion. This result recasts the standard perturbative damping formula into a compact and physically transparent law, immediately explaining why field-dominated branches such as whistlers can be much less damped than the collision frequency, whereas quasi-electrostatic modes can exhibit damping of comparable magnitude. Analytic examples for Langmuir, transverse electromagnetic, whistler, and extraordinary waves show that the energy-partition form classifies weak collisional damping across distinct branches and provides a simple diagnostic for mode competition in multibranch plasma-wave systems.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2606.21087",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Yanzeng Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xingming Zeng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xianzhu Tang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ge Zhuang"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4skqet4jweerj.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2606.21087",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "4skqet4jweerj",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.21087",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.plasm-ph"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.21087",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-30",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4skqet4jweerj.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:25:48Z",
      "native_id": "2606.21087",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.21087"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.plasm-ph",
      "subfield": "plasma"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Wave-Energy Partition Governs Weak Collisional Damping in Cold Plasmas",
  "title_text": "Wave-Energy Partition Governs Weak Collisional Damping in Cold Plasmas",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:25:48Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4skqet4jweerj",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}