In other words, it is an electrode potential resulting from a simultaneous action of more than a single redox couple, while the net electrode current is zero.
2.
Likewise, cold-cathode gauges may be reluctant to start at very low pressures, in that the near-absence of a gas makes it difficult to establish an electrode current-in particular in Penning gauges, which use an axially symmetric magnetic field to create path lengths for electrons that are of the order of metres.