Charge Shielding in Magnetized Plasmas

The shielding of a test charge imbedded into a magnetized plasma has been investigated by means of a PIC (particle‐in‐cell) model. It is shown that the ratio of the gyration radius to the Debye length is the main parameter in the analysis. For small values of this parameter the plasma surrounding the test charge is not able to compensate this additional charge and shielding does not occur. For high values of this parameter the effect of the magnetic field vanishes and the electric forces dominate. Scaling rules are given in order to compare different sets of plasma parameters.