Unifying averaged dynamics of the Fokker-Planck equation for Paul traps

Abstract

Collective dynamics of a collisional plasma in a Paul trap is governed by the Fokker-Planck equation, which is usually assumed to lead to a unique asymptotic time-periodic solution irrespective of the initial plasma distribution. This uniqueness is, however, hard to prove in general due to analytical difficulties. For the case of small damping and diffusion coefficients, we apply averaging theory to a special solution to this problem and show that the averaged dynamics can be represented by a remarkably simple 2D phase portrait, which is independent of the applied rf field amplitude. In particular, in the 2D phase portrait, we have two regions of initial conditions. From one region, all solutions are unbounded. From the other region, all solutions go to a stable fixed point, which represents a unique time-periodic solution of the plasma distribution function, and the boundary between these two is a parabola.