Magnetized Plasma Relaxation in the Presence of a Mass-Dependent Potential

The relaxation of a multiple-species magnetized plasma under the influence of an external potential is characterized by several distinct timescales during which different physical effects dominate.¹ In appropriate parameter regimes, these timescales can be substantially separated from one another. The resulting behavior is notable both because of how differently it affects different ion species and because of how different it is from the relaxation behavior of other materials, such as neutral gas.^2,3 We discuss these problems analytically and simulate them numerically using a multiple-fluid model, including the behaviors of different density and temperature distributions.

[1] E. J. Kolmes, I. E. Ochs, and N. J. Fisch, Phys. Plasmas 25, 042703 (2018).

[2] V. I. Geyko and N. J. Fisch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 150604 (2013).

[3] V. I. Geyko and N. J. Fisch, Phys. Rev. E 94, 042113 (2016).