Observation of transport to thermal equilibrium in pure electron plasmas

Transport of magnetically confined pure electron plasmas to global thermal equilibrium has recently been observed. In equilibrium, the E×B and diamagnetic drifts calculated from the measured temperature and density profiles combine to give rigid rotation (i.e., 〈$v_{\theta }$〉=ωr), as expected. However, the density profile relaxes towards equilibrium up to 5000 times faster than predicted by Boltzmann transport theory: Over a decade range of magnetic field, the density equilibration time is always less than predicted, and scales as $B^1$ rather than as $B^4$.