STABLE, THERMAL-EQUILIBRIUM, LARGE-AMPLITUDE, SPHERICAL PLASMA-OSCILLATIONS IN ELECTROSTATIC CONFINEMENT DEVICES

The problem of large-amplitude spherical oscillations of an ion cloud in an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) device is examined. It is shown that ion fluctuations of a Gaussian profile in a spherical, h armonic well are stable to all hydrodynamic modes, and stable oscillat ions about the oscillating equilibrium state may be damped by continuu m damping. It is also shown that the ion state forms a thermal equilib rium, in spite of the orders of magnitude, density, and temperature ch anges during the oscillation cycle. Finally, a brief discussion of how to experimentally realize the required electron distributions for the se oscillations is presented. [S1070-664X(98)012307-2]