Negative specific heat for quasi-2D vortex structures in electron plasmas: an explicit, closed-form derivation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the occurrence of negative specific heat in quasi-2D electron plasma vortex structures, showing that increasing temperature leads to system expansion and energy decrease, indicating a runaway collapse phenomenon.

Contribution

It provides an explicit, closed-form derivation of negative specific heat in electron plasma vortex filaments within the EMH model, a novel finding in plasma physics.

Findings

Negative specific heat observed in electron plasma vortices.

System size increases exponentially with temperature.

Energy decreases as temperature rises, indicating a runaway collapse.

Abstract

Negative specific heat is a dramatic phenomenon where processes decrease in temperature when adding energy. It has been observed in gravo-thermal collapse of globular clusters. We now report finding this phenomenon in bundles of nearly parallel, periodic, single-sign generalized vortex filaments in the electron magnetohydrodynamic (EMH) model for the unbounded plane under strong magnetic confinement. We derive the specific heat using a steepest descent method and a mean field property. Our derivations show that as temperature increases, the overall size of the system increases exponentially and the energy drops. The implication of negative specific heat is a runaway reaction, resulting in a collapsing inner core surrounded by an expanding halo of filaments.