Numerical Studies of Coulomb Collisions, Relaxation, and Debye Shielding by N-Body Simulation.

Basic kinetic process of plasmas is studied by a first principle based N-body simulation. By confirming Coulomb collisional relaxation process, this paper is extended to investigate the dynamics of Debye shielding. Some of the key numerical techniques are discussed, including how to avoid singularities at the near encounter of two charged particles. Electron distribution function in Debye shielding is revealed, which deviates from conventional Maxwellian distribution function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]