Many-particle effects in travelling electrostatic wave transport

Computer simulations of a flow of charged particles driven with a travelling electrostatic wave along a flat solid boundary were performed. Many-particle flows of this kind are shown to exhibit self-consistent behaviour practically independent of the initial particle conditions. The average macroscopic velocity of the flow results from the interplay of the driving field and the interactions in the system. This velocity can take any value between zero and the wave phase velocity and may even become negative (directed opposite to the wave propagation). The average velocity in the intermediate regime flows is achieved through the scattering of particles between different velocity states.