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Concept

Debye length

A concentric circular pattern with a glowing center and radiating lines, symbolizing the Debye length concept in plasma physics.

The distance over which mobile charges in a plasma rearrange themselves to screen out an applied electric field, named for the Dutch physical chemist Peter Debye. Inside this length the plasma behaves like a collection of individual charged particles; outside it, the medium looks electrically neutral. The Debye length, together with the plasma frequency, sets the scale of every collective phenomenon in the fourth state of matter.

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