Asymptotic state of the two-stream instability

Abstract

Previously reported numerical investigations of the non-linear Vlasov equation are extended to an intensive study of the two-stream instability. Strongly unstable initial conditions for the one-dimensional electron plasma are followed in time until the state of the plasma has become essentially time independent. Both the electric field and the distribution function appear to be characteristic of an inhomogeneous equilibrium, as previously conjectured (Armstrong 1966).