The Landau Damping of a Manhole Cover

Authors

Landau Damping, Brigham Young University
Dr. Ross L. Spencer, Brigham Young University

Keywords

UCSD, pure-electron plasmas, non-neutral plasmas, transfers energy

College

Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

Research groups at BYU and the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) are actively investigating the properties of pure-electron plasmas, which fall into the more general class of nonneutral plasmas. Electrons are excited and injected into a Malmberg-Penning trap where they form a cylindrical plasma. By perturbing the confining electrical potentials of the trap, various wave motions can be induced in the plasma. Some of these waves exhibit a phenomenon called Landau damping which transfers energy from the wave motion to the kinetic energy of the electrons, causing the wave to attenuate.

Recommended Citation

Damping, Landau and Spencer, Dr. Ross L. (2014) "The Landau Damping of a Manhole Cover," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2014: Iss. 1, Article 1273.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2014/iss1/1273