Relativistic electron Wigner crystal formation in a cavity for electron   acceleration
  It is known that a gas of electrons in a uniform neutralizing background can crystallize and form a lattice if the electron density is less than a critical value. This crystallization may have two- or three-dimensional structure. Since the wake field potential in the highly-nonlinear-broken-wave regime (bubble regime) has the form of a cavity where the background electrons are evacuated from and only the positively charged ions remain, it is suited for crystallization of trapped and accelerated electron bunches. However, in this case, the crystal is moving relativistically and shows new three-dimensional structures that we call relativistic Wigner crystals. We analyze these structures using a relativistic Hamiltonian approach. We also check for stability and phase transitions of the relativistic Wigner crystals. 
Johannes Thomas, Marc M. G\"unther, Alexander Pukhov
physics.plasm-ph