Torque-balanced high-density steady states of single-component plasmas

Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Jan 28;94(3):035001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.035001. Epub 2005 Jan 24.

Abstract

Electron plasmas in a Penning-Malmberg trap are compressed radially using a rotating electric field (the "rotating-wall technique"). For large electric fields, plasmas can be compressed over a broad range of frequencies. This permits access to a novel high-density regime in which outward transport is insensitive to plasma density. The limiting density occurs when the plasma rotation frequency equals the rotating-wall frequency. Characteristics of the resulting torque-balanced steady states are described, and implications for high-density electron and positron plasma confinement are discussed.