Trapping oscillations, discrete particle effects and kinetic theory of collisionless plasma

Effects induced by the finite number $N$ of particles on the evolution of a monochromatic electrostatic perturbation in a collisionless plasma are investigated. For growth as well as damping of a single wave, discrete particle numerical simulations show a $N$-dependent long time behavior which differs from the numerical errors incurred by vlasovian approaches and follows from the pulsating separatrix crossing dynamics of individual particles.