Admissible equilibria of non-neutral plasmas in a Malmberg-Penning trap

Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Aug 22;101(8):085006. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.085006. Epub 2008 Aug 22.

Abstract

A "parallel current constraint" is derived, that in combination with the Poisson equation allows one to select admissible equilibria of non-neutral plasmas in a Malmberg-Penning trap in the presence of a nonuniform and nonaxisymmetric magnetic field. Asymmetry-induced currents (analogous to the Pfirsch-Schlüter currents in Tokamaks) appearing in a non-neutral plasma even in the absence of magnetic drifts are explicitly computed in the case of a uniformly tilted magnetic field.