Computational Exploration of Non-Neutral Plasmas

Non-neutral plasmas possess several attractive qualities: they have long periods of confinement (Dubin 1999) and their temperature can be arbitrarily lowered without recombination (Malmberg 1977). If the temperature reaches a low enough point, thermal equilibrium states can be formed in which the plasma crystallizes (Malmberg 1977). These properties make non-neutral plasmas an interesting candidate for further exploration. We study the confinement and dynamics of a pure electron plasma through N-body computational simulations in 2D. We also investigate various confinement properties, such as how particles are lost as a function of time. In order to confine the plasmas, we explore the use of a quadrupole ion trap. The governing equations of this system comprises the equations of motion derived from Newtonian mechanics along with the equations of motion within the trap (March 2009). Through simulated cooling of the system, we are able to evolve the plasma to a state of thermal equilibrium in which symmetric configurations are formed. Without allowing for cooling, the number of electrons confined becomes inversely proportional to time. In the near future, we plan to advance our simulation to three dimensions and explore the confinement of these plasmas within other trap mechanisms.