Evolution of a Cold Non-neutral Electron–Positron Plasma Slab**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11247007, 11374262 and 11475147, the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province under Grant No LY15A050001, the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities, and the Open Fund of the State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics at SIOM.

Abstract

Evolution of a non-neutral cold electron–positron plasma slab is investigated. Initially the slab consists of a quasineutral plasma core bounded on both sides by layers containing only positrons (or electrons). Results from a nonperturbative, or mathematically exact, analysis of the governing fluid conservation equations and the Poisson equation show that despite their equal mass and charge magnitude, the electron and positron fronts can expand separately as well as a single fluid, and that nonlinear surface oscillations can be excited on the expansion fronts.