title: Experimental realization of an exact solution to the Vlasov equations for an expanding plasma.
abstract: We study the expansion of ultracold neutral plasmas in the regime in which inelastic collisions are negligible. The plasma expands due to the thermal pressure of the electrons, and for an initial spherically symmetric Gaussian density profile, the expansion is self-similar. Measurements of the plasma size and ion kinetic energy using fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy show that the expansion follows an analytic solution of the Vlasov equations for an adiabatically expanding plasma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laha
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Simien
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pohl
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Killian