Thermal equilibrium of a cryogenic magnetized pure electron plasma

Abstract

The thermal equilibrium correlation properties of a magnetically confined pure electron plasma (McPEP) are related to those of a one‐component plasma (OCP). The N‐particle spatial distribution ρ_s and the Helmholtz free energy F are evaluated for the McPEP to O(λ²_d/a²), where λ_d is the thermal de Broglie wavelength and a is an interparticle spacing. The electron gyromotion is allowed to be fully quantized while the guiding center motion is quasiclassical. The distribution ρ_s is shown to be identical to that of a classical OCP with a slightly modified potential. To O(λ²_d/a²) this modification does not affect that part of F which caused by correlations, as long as certain requirements concerning the size of the plasma are met. This theory is motivated by a current series of experiments that involve the cooling of a magnetically confined pure electron plasma to the cryogenic temperature range.