Adiabatic-nonadiabatic transition in warm long-range interacting systems: the transport of intense inhomogeneous beams.

We investigate the role of the temperature in the onset of singularities and the consequent breakdown in a macroscopic fluid model for long-range interacting systems. In particular, we consider an adiabatic fluid description for the transport of intense inhomogeneous charged particle beams. We find that there exists a critical temperature below which the fluid model always develops a singularity and breaks down as the system evolves.

Driven one-component plasmas.

A statistical theory is presented that allows the calculation of the stationary state achieved by a driven one-component plasma after a process of collisionless relaxation. The stationary Vlasov equation with appropriate boundary conditions is reduced to an ordinary differential equation, which is then solved numerically. The solution is then compared with the molecular-dynamics simulation.

Collisionless relaxation in gravitational systems: from violent relaxation to gravothermal collapse.

Theory and simulations are used to study collisionless relaxation of a gravitational N -body system. It is shown that when the initial one-particle distribution function satisfies the virial condition--potential energy is minus twice the kinetic energy--the system quickly relaxes to a metastable state described quantitatively by the Lynden-Bell distribution with a cutoff. If the initial distribution function does not meet the virial requirement, the system undergoes violent oscillations, resulting in a partial evaporation of mass.

Superconducting pipes and levitating magnets.

Motivated by a beautiful demonstration of the Faraday and the Lenz laws in which a small neodymium magnet falls slowly through a conducting nonferromagnetic tube, we consider the dynamics of a magnet falling coaxially through a superconducting pipe. Unlike the case of normal conducting pipes, in which the magnet quickly reaches the terminal velocity, inside a superconducting tube the magnet falls freely. On the other hand, to enter the pipe the magnet must overcome a large electromagnetic energy barrier.