Formation and Relaxation of Two-Dimensional Vortex Crystals in a Magnetized Pure-Electron Plasma

Abstract

Systematic examinations are carried out experimentally about the contribution of background vorticity distributions (BGVD's) to the spontaneous formation and decay of ordered arrays (vortex crystals) composed of strong vortices (clumps) by using a pure-electron plasma. It is found that the BGVD level needs to be higher for an increasing number of clumps to form vortex crystals and that the number of the clumps constituting the crystal decreases in time as proportional to gamma lnt in contrast to proportional to t (-xi) with xi approximately 1 as accepted well in turbulence models. The decay rate gamma increases with the BGVD level. The observed configurations of the clumps cover the theoretically predicted catalogue of vortex arrays in superfluid helium, suggesting a possible relaxation path of the crystal states.