  Waves propagating through a bounded plasma can rearrange the densities of
states in the six-dimensional velocity-configuration phase space. Depending on
the rearrangement, the wave energy can either increase or decrease, with the
difference taken up by the total plasma energy. In the case where the
rearrangement is diffusive, only certain plasma states can be reached. It turns
out that the set of reachable states through such diffusive rearrangements has
been described in very different contexts. Building upon those descriptions,
and making use of the fact that the plasma energy is a linear functional of the
state densities, the maximal extractable energy under diffusive rearrangement
can then be addressed through linear programming.
