Self-organization of plasma due to electron beam instability

Journal Article · Mon May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2006 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2197802· OSTI ID:20783087

Liu, Z J; Shaoping, Zhu; Cao, L H; Zheng, C Y; Bin, Li ^[1]

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1. Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, P. O. Box 8009, Beijing, 100088 (China)

The evolution of electron beams in dense plasmas has been investigated by using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations with mobile and immobile ions, respectively. It is shown that electron beams are split into many filaments at the beginning due to the Weibel instability, and then different filamentation beams attract each other and coalesce. It is observed that there exist two different current density distributions, the Bennett-like equilibrium and the delta-like equilibrium, which are mainly determined by the total beam current. When the initial beam current exceeds Alfven current, the system approaches a delta-like state. Otherwise, the system approaches a Bennett-like state. The physical mechanism for this phenomenon is pointed out; also the temporal evolution of particle distribution function is discussed.

• OSTI ID: 20783087
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 13; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALFVEN WAVES
BEAM CURRENTS
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
CURRENT DENSITY
DISTRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
ELECTRON BEAMS
EQUILIBRIUM
IONS
PLASMA
PLASMA SIMULATION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS