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Who is the author of the term "Coulomb logarithm"? In fact, Coulomb logarithm was computed by Langmuir in his paper of 1928 where the term "plasma" was introduced into physics, but the term "Coulomb logarithm" seemed to appear later. The earliest reference I found is the paper Relativistic kinetic equation by Belyaev & Budker (1956).

UPDATE: I found the term "Coulomn logarithm" in several papers by S.I.Braginsky, V.I. Kogan, and G.I.Budker dated as early as 1951. They are published in a volume of declassified works issued in 1958.

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  • $\begingroup$ Old issues of Soviet Physics, Doklady do not seem to be available online. I might try to find a paper copy unless you already looked. If so, in what context do Belyaev and Budker use the term? Who does the paper cite? What made you think they did not come up with it themselves? $\endgroup$ – Conifold Oct 2 '16 at 0:27
  • $\begingroup$ This is a question migrated from physics.sx. It has been unanswered for a long period and I forgot details. I'll look tomorrow for [Беляев С. Т., Будкер Г. И. Релятивистское кинетическое уравнение //Докл. Акад. Наук СССР. – 1956. – Т. 107.] in institution library. $\endgroup$ – Igor Kotelnikov Oct 4 '16 at 13:32
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    $\begingroup$ @Conifold: Beleyav and Budker mentioned the Coulomb logarithm when they cited Landau's paper of 1936 where he derived the integral of collisions for Coulomb interaction. However Landau in 1936 did not use this term. books.google.com/ngrams in search for "кулоновский логарифм" returns 1934 as the most early year when this term appears in books. $\endgroup$ – Igor Kotelnikov Oct 4 '16 at 13:55
  • $\begingroup$ I couldn't get even that, the earliest spike it shows for me is 1948, and the corresponding search doesn't display even that books.google.com/ngrams/… $\endgroup$ – Conifold Oct 4 '16 at 21:58
  • $\begingroup$ @Conifold: I searched for "кулоновский логарифм" (this term in Russian) $\endgroup$ – Igor Kotelnikov Oct 6 '16 at 11:12

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