Figure 1

A single ion (black sphere) carrying the charge $Q>0$, subject to the attractive 2D Coulomb potential generated by a wire (green cylinder) carrying the linear charge density $\lambda <0$, thermalizes, by means of short-range repulsive collisions, a gas of neutral atoms (orange spheres) to the Gibbs distribution of temperature $T=|Q\lambda |/\pi {\epsilon }_0$.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

Probability density function of energy for a system of two particles in a 1D box performing short-ranged collisions with a log-oscillator. The system energy $E_S$ is rescaled by the total simulation energy, which is $E_{\mathrm{tot}}=75\epsilon$. The log-oscillator strength is $T=15\epsilon$, and the box length is $L=10e^{E_{\mathrm{tot}}/T}\sigma \simeq 1484\sigma$. Black dots: Numerical simulation. Red line: Gibbs distribution at temperature $T=15\epsilon$. The total system is schematically represented in the inset with the system of interest (two orange particles) confined to the box potential (orange curve) and the log-oscillator (black particle) confined to the logarithmic potential (black curve).Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

Probability density function of the absolute value of the velocity components of a gas of 3 neutral particles in a confining box, weakly interacting with a charged particle in a truncated 2D Coulomb field [Eq. (11)]. The velocity is rescaled by the maximum possible velocity $v_{\max }=(2E_{\mathrm{tot}}/m{)}^{1/2}$. The simulation energy is $E_{\mathrm{tot}}=120\epsilon$, $T=15\epsilon$, $b=\sigma$, and the box has dimensions $L_z=20\sigma$, $L_x=L_y=2r_{\max }$ [$r_{\max }=\sigma (e^{E_{\mathrm{tot}}/T}-1{)}^{1/2}\simeq 109\sigma$ is the maximal possible excursion of the log-oscillator]. Black dots: Numerical simulation. Black dashed line: Maxwell distribution at temperature $T=15\epsilon$. Red solid line: Corrected distribution accounting for the truncation of the log-potential, Eq. (11). Inset: The same but for a gas of 8 particles.Reuse & Permissions