Canonical angular momentum compression near the Brillouin limit

Near the Brillouin limit, the angular momentum of a trapped, T=0, pure-electron plasma approaches zero. If the plasma expands axially, its density would appear to drop. However, the plasma's canonical angular momentum is not changed by an axial expansion, so the plasma must stay near the Brillouin limit; thus the plasma's density cannot change when it is expanded. The only way for the plasma density to remain constant as the plasma length increases is for the plasma radius to decrease. Dynamically, this decrease is caused by the polarization drift induced by a small decrease in the density. In this poster we present preliminary experimental evidence demonstrating this radial compression. This work was supported by the ONR.