On a Vlasov-Poisson plasma confined in a torus by a magnetic mirror (Q907703)

The time evolution of a Vlasov-Poisson plasma moving in a torus -- in which it is confined by an unbounded external magnetic field -- is studied here. It is supposed that this field depends on the distance to the border of the torus, is tangent to the border and becomes very large (singular) on it. The existence and uniqueness of the solution are proved, as well as the confinement inside the torus for all times, in other words, the external field behaves like a magnetic mirror. The leading idea is that the rectification of the characteristics of the plasma particles along the lines of the magnetic field, that is the trajectory of a fluid element, is close to a straight line in a short time interval. This paper is self-contained for the readers' convenience even if some basic statements follow directly from another paper of the same authors [Kinet. Relat. Models 5, No. 4, 729--742 (2012; Zbl 1263.82052)]. The main difference between this paper and the one mentioned is that here the magnetic field lines are no longer straight lines. This forces to use curvilinear coordinates and oblige the choice of time intervals smaller than before. This makes the proof a little bit more complicated.