Approximate solutions for the Vlasov–Poisson system with boundary layers

Abstract

We construct the approximate solutions to the Vlasov–Poisson system in a half-space, which arises in the study of the quasi-neutral limit problem in the presence of a sharp boundary layer, referred as to the plasma sheath in the context of plasma physics. The quasi-neutrality is an important characteristic of plasmas and its scale is characterized by a small parameter, called the Debye length. We present the approximate equations obtained by a formal expansion in the parameter and study the properties of the approximate solutions. Moreover, we present numerical experiments demonstrating that the approximate solutions converge to those of the Vlasov–Poisson system as the parameter goes to zero.