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Thermal relaxation of a two-dimensional plasma in a d.c. magnetic field. Part 2. Numerical simulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

Jang-Yu Hsu
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
Glenn Joyce
Affiliation:
Hunter College of the City University of New York
David Montgomery
Affiliation:
Hunter College of the City University of New York

Abstract

The thermal relaxation process for a spatially uniform two-dimensional plasma in a uniform d.c. magnetic field is simulated numerically. Thermal relaxation times are defined in terms of the time necessary for the numerically computed Boltzmann H function to decrease through a given part of the distance to its minimum value. Dependence of relaxation time on two parameters is studied: number of particles per Debye square n0 λ2D and ratio of gyrofrequency to plasma frequency Ω/ωp. When Ω22p becomes ≫[ln (L/2πλD)]−½, where L is the linear dimension of the system, it is found that the relaxation time varies to a good approximation as (n0 λ2D)½ and Ω/ωp.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

REFERENCES

Montgomery, D. & Nielson, C. W. 1970 Phys. Fluids 13, 1405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morse, R. L. 1970 Methods of Computational Physics, vol. 9 (ed. Alder, B. et at.), p. 213. Academic.Google Scholar