Keywords

dicotron frequency, equilibrium calculation, non-neutral plasma, Debye

Abstract

The m = 1 diocotron mode in non-neutral plasmas has long been thought of as a shifted equilibrium, and its frequency has been approximately calculated in this way by Fine and Driscoll [Phys. Plasmas 5, 601 (1998)]. This article shows that this idea can be coupled with a standard axisymmetric equilibrium calculation on a grid to calculate the frequency of this mode to very high precision including both finite-length and thermal effects, provided that the Debye length is small enough. As the Debye length begins to approach the plasma size not only does the shifted equilibrium calculation fail to predict correctly the frequency of the mode, but the idea that the mode is a simple shift of the original equilibrium also becomes invalid.

Original Publication Citation

Spencer, Ross L."Computing the m = 1 diocotron frequency via an equilibrium calculation in non-neutral plasmas." Physics of Plasmas 11 (24): 5356-5359.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2004-10-22

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/1268

Publisher

AIP

Language

English

College

Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Department

Physics and Astronomy

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