Relaxation of equilibrium density profiles in nonneutral electron plasma due to electron-neutral collisions

Under the assumption of constant frequency of electron-neutral collisions and constant electron temperature, analytical expressions are obtained for equilibrium space-time distributions of the electron density of a cylindrically symmetric, strongly magnetized, nonneutral electron plasma. It is found that the effect of nonzero electron temperature accelerates or slows down the relaxation and Battening of equilibrium density profiles depending on the initial density gradient sign. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.