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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Experimental Methods for Trapping Ions Using Microfabricated Surface Ion Traps
Published on: August 17, 2017
New ion-wave path in the energy cascade
Francesco Valentini1, Francesco Califano, Denise Perrone
1Dipartimento di Fisica and CNISM, Università della Calabria, Rende (CS), Italy.
Abstract:
We present the results of kinetic numerical simulations that demonstrate the existence of a novel branch of electrostatic nonlinear waves driven by particle trapping processes. These waves have an acoustic-type dispersion with phase speed comparable to the ion thermal speed and would thus be heavily Landau damped in the linear regime. At variance with the ion-acoustic waves, this novel electrostatic branch can exist at a small but finite amplitude even for low values of the electron to ion temperature ratio. Our results provide a new interpretation of observations in space plasmas, where a significant level of electrostatic activity is observed in the high frequency region of the solar-wind turbulent spectra.
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