Laboratory Observations of Self-Excited Dust Acoustic Shocks

Journal Article · Fri Sep 11 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.115002· OSTI ID:21364690

Heinrich, J; Kim, S -H; Merlino, R L ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242 (United States)

Repeated, self-excited dust acoustic shock waves (DASWs) have been observed in a dc glow discharge dusty plasma using high-speed video imaging. Two major observations are reported: (1) The self-steepening of a nonlinear dust acoustic wave (DAW) into a saw-tooth wave with sharp gradient in dust density, very similar to those found in numerical solutions of the fully nonlinear fluid equations for a nondispersive DAW [B. Eliasson and P. K. Shukla, Phys. Rev. E 69, 067401 (2004)], and (2) the collision and confluence of two DASWs.

• OSTI ID: 21364690
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 11; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.115002; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DUSTS
EQUATIONS
GLOW DISCHARGES
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
SHOCK WAVES
SOUND WAVES
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS