Nonlinear Stability and Instability of Plasma Boundary Layers

Abstract

We investigate the formation of a plasma boundary layer (sheath) by considering the Vlasov--Poisson system on a half-line with the completely absorbing boundary condition. In an earlier paper by the first two authors, the solvability of the stationary problem is studied. In this paper, we study the nonlinear stability and instability of these stationary solutions of the Vlasov--Poisson system.