Two-Stream Instability and Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal Mode Formation in Coulomb One Component Plasma

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to explore the two-stream instability and BGK mode formation in strongly coupled Coulomb plasmas, revealing microscopic effects and the importance of long-range interactions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the nonlinear evolution of the two-stream instability and BGK mode formation in Coulomb plasmas, capturing effects often missed by fluid and kinetic models.

Findings

Rapid growth and saturation of instability within a few plasma periods

Emergence of a single BGK mode in the nonlinear regime

Long-range Coulomb interactions are crucial for instability and mode formation

Abstract

We investigate the Two-Stream Instability in a strongly coupled plasma using classical molecular dynamics simulations with long-range Coulomb interactions between particles. The nonlinear evolution of the instability is identified by the emergence of a Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal (BGK) mode. Our simulations capture key microscopic effects, such as inter-particle correlations, collisional dynamics, and coherent wave-particle interactions-features often absent in traditional fluid and kinetic models, including Particle-In-Cell and Vlasov approaches. In the linear regime, the instability grows rapidly and saturates within a few tens of plasma periods. As the system transitions into the nonlinear saturation phase, a single BGK mode emerges. This mode (or phase-space hole) becomes dynamically unstable in the nonlinear regime, characterized by a continuous decay of electrostatic energy over time. An energy budget analysis reveals a bump in an otherwise thermal spectrum, indicating the excitation of a coherent mode, further confirmed through a numerical rendering of the dispersion relation. The pairwise interaction plays a crucial role: pronounced instability and BGK mode formation occur with long-range Coulomb forces, while such structures are suppressed under shielded Coulomb interactions. We observe the emergence of a single BGK mode across all coupling strengths in the fluid regime, provided the streaming velocity exceeds a critical threshold.