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Title: Wave-Particle Dynamics of Wave Breaking in the Self-Excited Dust Acoustic Wave

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics and Center for Complex Systems, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan 32001 (China)

The wave-particle microdynamics in the breaking of the self-excited dust acoustic wave growing in a dusty plasma liquid is investigated through directly tracking dust micromotion. It is found that the nonlinear wave growth and steepening stop as the mean oscillating amplitude of dust displacement reaches about 1/k (k is the wave number), where the vertical neighboring dust trajectories start to crossover and the resonant wave heating with uncertain crest trapping onsets. The dephased dust oscillations cause the abrupt dropping and broadening of the wave crest after breaking, accompanied by the transition from the liquid phase with coherent dust oscillation to the gas phase with chaotic dust oscillation. Corkscrew-shaped phase-space distributions measured at the fixed phases of the wave oscillation cycle clearly indicate how dusts move in and constitute the evolving waveform through dust-wave interaction.

OSTI ID:
21370901
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 24; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.245005; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English