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.