Many-particle effects in travelling electrostatic wave transport

Computer simulations of a flow of charged particles driven with a travellin g electrostatic wave along a flat solid boundary were performed. Many-parti cle flows of this kind are shown to exhibit self-consistent behaviour pract ically independent of the initial particle conditions. The average macrosco pic velocity of the flow results from the interplay of the driving field an d the interactions in the system. This velocity can take any value between zero and the wave phase velocity and may even become negative (directed opp osite to the wave propagation). The average velocity in the intermediate re gime flows is achieved through the scattering of particles between differen t velocity states.