A Vlasov equation with Dirac potential used in fusion plasmas

Well-posedness of the Cauchy problem is analyzed for a singular Vlasov equation governing the evolution of the ionic distribution function of a quasineutral fusion plasma. The Penrose criterium is adapted to the linearized problem around a time and space homogeneous distribution function showing (due to the singularity) more drastic differences between stable and unstable situations. This pathology appears on the full nonlinear problem, well-posed locally in time with analytic initial data, but generally ill-posed in the Hadamard sense. Eventually with a very different class of solutions, mono-kinetic, which constrains the structure of the density distribution, the problem becomes locally in time well-posed. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4765338]