Also, nonneutral plasmas can be cooled to very low temperatures with no recombination, allowing them to access novel strongly correlated states . In fact, our group has learned quite a bit about turbulence and nonlinear fluid processes in Euler fluids by studying nonneutral plasmas, both in experiments and numerical simulations. Some of this work is discussed here. Nonneutral plasmas can be confined for long periods of time using only static electric and magnetic fields. One such configuration is called a Penning Trap, after the inventor F. M. Penning.
Radial confinement is provided by the magnetic field.
If the Penning trap had perfect cylindrical symmetry, the plasma would be confined forever . This results in a loss of the plasma, but these irregularities can be made so small that the plasma can be confined for days in actual experiments. Nonneutral plasmas can be cooled to very low temperatures with no recombination, allowing them to access novel strongly correlated states. For example, pure ion plasmas have been cooled until they crystallize - forming a bcc crystal. The crystal structure can be observed in the Bragg-scattering image shown below.