Transport Theory of a Partially Degenerate Plasma

The transport coefficients of a high temperature, weakly coupled plasma of nondegenerate ions and partially degenerate electrons (i.e., stellar matter) are calculated by means of a Chapman-Enskog solution of the quantum Lenard-Balescu kinetic equation. Both electron-electron and electron-ion collisions are included. The leading term of the transport coefficients, the Coulomb logarithm, is evaluated exactly and relatively simply for all degrees of electron degeneracy. Dynamic shielding, and other corrections to the term of order unity which follows the larger logarithm, have been neglected. The method is applicable to any partially degenerate system with weak, long-range particle interactions.