3D Coulomb balls: experiment and simulation

Abstract

Spherically symmetric three-dimensional charged particle clusters are analyzed experimentally and theoretically. Based on accurate molecular dynamics simulations ground state configurations and energies with clusters for N ⩽ 160 are presented which correct previous results of Hasse and Avilov [Phys. Rev. A 44, 4506 (1991)]. A complete table is given in the appendix. Further, the lowest metastable states are analyzed.