Numerical study of the Transverse Diffusion coefficient for a one component model of a plasma

Abstract

We report the results of MD numerical simulations for a one component model of a plasma in the weakly coupled regime, at different values of temperature $T$ and applied magnetic field $\vec B$, in which the diffusion coefficient $D_{\perp}$ transverse to the field is estimated. We find that there exists a threshold in temperature, at which an inversion occurs, namely, for $T$ above the threshold the diffusion coefficient $D_{\perp}$ starts decreasing as $T$ increases. This is at variance with the behavior predicted by the Bohm law $D_{\perp}\sim T/B$, which actually holds below the threshold. In addition we find that, for temperatures above such a threshold, another transition occurs, now with respect to the values of the magnetic field: for weak magnetic fields the diffusion coefficients scales as $1/B^2$, in agreement with the predictions of the standard kinetics theory, while it apparently saturates when the field strength is sufficiently increased.