Peculiarities of transport phenomena in highly excited gases

Highly excited gases consisting of a considerable amount (nonequilibrium) of excited atoms on the electron quantum level may have completely different physical properties in comparison with the gas of the same nonexcited atoms. The strong resonant dipole-dipole interaction between differently excited atoms associated with exchange of excitation may result in formation of the metastable quasimolecules. We evaluate the lifetime of these quasi-molecules that may have the anomalous cross-section for high quantum states of the excited atoms. Large scattering cross-sections result in decreasing of the diffusion and heat conductivity coefficient in the highly excited gases. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.