Collisionless Relaxation in Non-Neutral Plasmas

Journal Article · Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2008 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.100.040604· OSTI ID:21024646

Levin, Yan; Pakter, Renato; Teles, Tarcisio N ^[1]

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1. Instituto de Fisica, UFRGS, Caixa Postal 15051, CEP 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil)

A theoretical framework is presented which allows us to quantitatively predict the final stationary state achieved by a non-neutral plasma during a process of collisionless relaxation. As a specific application, the theory is used to study relaxation of charged-particle beams. It is shown that a fully matched beam relaxes to the Lynden-Bell distribution. However, when a mismatch is present and the beam oscillates, parametric resonances lead to a core-halo phase separation. The approach developed accounts for both the density and the velocity distributions in the final stationary state.

• OSTI ID: 21024646
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.040604; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
CHARGED PARTICLES
DISTRIBUTION
PLASMA
RELAXATION
VELOCITY