ABSTRACT
The idea of obta in ing more or less val id plasma physics by us ing a com !1uter to follow charged particles occurred to a number of people , notably John Dawson at Princeton and Oscar Buneman at Cambridge, in the late 1 950' s and early 1 960' s . After all, there had been simulations fol lowing par ticles of e lectron beams in vacuum tubes all dur ing the 1 950' s , so why not s imulate plasmas ? It s imply was not clear that taking the step from cold beams with charges all of one sign to thermal distr ibutions with essent ially equal density of charges of opposite signs and greatly d ifferent masses would be successful .
