| A Malmberg-Penning electron trap allows for the experimental study of nearly ideal, two-dimensional (2D) inviscid (Euler) hydrodynamics. This is perhaps the simplest case of self organizing nonlinear turbulence, and is therefore a paradigm for dynamo theory, Taylor relaxation, selective decay and other nonlinear fluid processes. The dynamical relaxation of a pure electron plasma in the guiding-center-drift approximation is studied, comparing experiments, numerical simulations and statistical theories of weakly-dissipative 2D turbulence. The nonuniform metastable equilibrium states resulting from turbulent evolution are examined, and are well-described by a maximum entropy principle for constrained circulation, energy, and angular momentum. The turbulent decay of the system is also examined, and a similarity decay law is proposed which incorporates the substantial enstrophy trapped in the metastable equilibrium. This law approaches Batchelor's t-2 self-similar decay in the limit of strong turbulence, and is verified in turbulent evolution in the electron plasma experiment. |
