EFFICACY OF A MAGNETIC SHIELD AGAINST A VLASOV-POISSON PLASMA

The aim of the paper is to test on a simple model how impenetrable may be a magnetic shield. We study the time evolution of a single species positive plasma, confined in the half-space x_1 > 0. The confinement is the result of a balance between a magnetic field and an external field, both singular at x_1 = 0; the magnetic field forbids the entrance of plasma particles in the region x_1 ≤ 0, whereas the external field attracts the plasma particles towards x_1 = 0. The plasma has finite total charge and velocities distributed with a Maxwell–Boltzmann law.