Negative specific heat for quasi-2D vortex structures in electron plasmas: an explicit, closed-form derivation

Abstract: Negative specific heat is a dramatic phenomenon where processes decrease in temperature when adding energy. It has been observed in gravothermal collapse of globular clusters. We now report finding this phenomenon in bundles of nearly parallel, periodic, single-sign generalized vortex filaments in the electron magnetohydrodynamic (EMH) model for the unbounded plane under strong magnetic confinement. We derive the specific heat using a steepest descent method and a mean field property. Our derivations show that as temperature increases, the overall size of the system increases exponentially and the energy drops. The implication of negative specific heat is a runaway reaction, resulting in a collapsing inner core surrounded by an expanding halo of filaments.