Computer simulated finite-length turbulent heating experiment

A computer code has been used which was designed to allow for finite length effects found in real plasmas in order to study turbulent heating in a plasma where boundary conditions might be important. An electric field was applied to an initially quiescent plasma, and it was found that the final energy distribution (after saturation occurs) favors ions and electrons equally (T_i≃T_e). This is in contrast to the infinite length simulations where the electrons become much hotter than the ions T_i≃(m_e/m_i)^1/3T_e. It was also found that the saturation level depends critically upon the length of the system as well as the mass of the ions and the applied electric field.