{
  "id": "physics/0503008",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2005-03-01T19:17:32.000Z",
  "updated": "2005-03-01T19:17:32.000Z",
  "title": "Relaxation to non-equilibrium in expanding ultracold neutral plasmas",
  "authors": [
    "T. Pohl",
    "T. Pattard",
    "J. M. Rost"
  ],
  "journal": "Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 205003 (2005), (c) 2005 The American Physical Society",
  "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.205003",
  "categories": [
    "physics.plasm-ph",
    "physics.atom-ph"
  ],
  "abstract": "We investigate the strongly correlated ion dynamics and the degree of coupling achievable in the evolution of freely expanding ultracold neutral plasmas. We demonstrate that the ionic Coulomb coupling parameter $\\Gamma_{\\rm i}$ increases considerably in later stages of the expansion, reaching the strongly coupled regime despite the well-known initial drop of $\\Gamma_{\\rm i}$ to order unity due to disorder-induced heating. Furthermore, we formulate a suitable measure of correlation and show th at $\\Gamma_{\\rm i}$ calculated from the ionic temperature and density reflects the degree of order in the system if it is sufficiently close to a quasisteady state. At later times, however, the expansion of the plasma cloud becomes faster than the relaxation of correlations, and the system does not reach thermodynamic equilibrium anymore.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2005-03-01T19:17:32.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "relaxation",
      "non-equilibrium",
      "reach thermodynamic equilibrium anymore",
      "well-known initial drop",
      "ionic coulomb coupling parameter"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "publisher": "APS",
      "journal": "Phys. Rev. Lett."
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 0,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}