Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Building Langmuir Probes and Emissive Probes for Plasma Potential Measurements in Low Pressure, Low Temperature Plasmas
Published on: May 25, 2021
Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal solitary waves in three-dimensional magnetized plasma
Li-Jen Chen1, David J Thouless, Jian-Ming Tang
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1479, USA.
Abstract:
We study the width-amplitude relation for three-dimensional Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal (BGK) electrostatic solitary waves in magnetized plasmas, taking into account the dynamics of both electrons and ions. We obtain two coupled inequalities that constrain the amplitude and the widths parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field for a Gaussian potential, and demonstrate how the solution space is further constrained by the finite temperature ratio between electrons and ions. The description is valid for both the electron and ion mode solitary waves. Our results provide a quantitative basis for understanding the ubiquity of BGK waves in widely different classes of collisionless plasmas.
Related Concept Videos
Plane Electromagnetic Waves I
The EM field is assumed to be a...
Standing Electromagnetic Waves
Suppose a sheet of a perfect conductor is placed in the yz-plane, and a linearly polarized electromagnetic wave traveling in the...
Magnetic Field due to Moving Charges
Consider a point charge moving with a constant velocity. Like the electric field, the magnetic field at any point is directly proportional to the magnitude of the charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the source point and the field point. However, unlike the electric field, the magnetic field is always perpendicular to the plane containing the line...
Potential Due to a Magnetized Object
The vector...
Electromagnetic Wave Equation
However, although electric and magnetic fields were first introduced as mathematical constructs to simplify the description of mutual forces between charges, a natural question emerges from Maxwell's equations: What...
Divergence and Curl of Magnetic Field
