Thermal relaxation of a two-dimensional plasma in a d.c. magnetic field. Part 2. Numerical simulation

The thermal relaxation process for a spatially uniform two-dimensional plasma in a uniform d.c. magnetic field is simulated numerically. Thermal relaxation times are defined in terms of the time necessary for the numerically computed Boltzmann H function to decrease through a given part of the distance to its minimum value. Dependence of relaxation time on two parameters is studied: number of particles per Debye square n0 λ2D and ratio of gyrofrequency to plasma frequency Ω/ωp. When Ω2/ω2p becomes ≫[ln (L/2πλD)]−½, where L is the linear dimension of the system, it is found that the relaxation time varies to a good approximation as (n0 λ2D)½ and Ω/ωp.