Application of contour dynamics to systems with cylindrical boundaries (Q1268329)

We present a straightforward contour dynamics (CD) method that can be used for system with cylindrical boundaries and can be generalized to other geometries. The free-space part of the stream function \((\psi_f)\) is calculated using standard CD, while the boundary-induced image contribution \((\psi_i)\) is computed as a solution of the Laplace's equation which satisfies the condition \(\psi_i|_{C_b}= -\psi_f |_{C_b}\), where \(C_b\) is the system boundary. As an illustration, the method is applied to the problem of finding the static equilibria of a nonneutral plasma column subjected to an externally applied boundary potential. \(\copyright\) Academic Press.