Enhanced Self-Focusing of an Ion Beam Pulse Propagating through a Background Plasma along a Solenoidal Magnetic Field

It is shown that the application of a weak solenoidal magnetic field along the direction of ion beam propagation through a neutralizing background plasma can significantly enhance the beam self-focusing for the case where the beam radius is small compared to the collisionless electron skin depth. The enhanced focusing is provided by a strong radial self-electric field that is generated due to a local polarization of the magnetized plasma background by the moving ion beam. A positive charge of the ion beam pulse becomes overcompensated by the plasma electrons, which results in the radial focusing of the beam ions. The expression for the self-focusing force is derived analytically and compared with the results of numerical simulations.

©2009 The American Physical Society