Superdiffusion and Viscoelastic Vortex Flows in a Two-Dimensional Complex Plasma

Journal Article · Fri Mar 17 00:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.105010· OSTI ID:20777095

Ratynskaia, S; Knapek, C; Khrapak, S; Ivlev, A; Morfill, G E ^[1]; Rypdal, K; Milovanov, A V ^[2]; Rasmussen, J J ^[3]

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1. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, D-85741 Garching (Germany)
2. Department of Physics, University of Tromso, Tromso 9037 (Norway)
3. Risoe National Laboratory, DK-4000 Roskilde (Denmark)

Viscoelastic vortical fluid motion in a strongly coupled particle system has been observed experimentally. Optical tracking of particle motion in a complex plasma monolayer reveals high grain mobility and large scale vortex flows coexistent with partial preservation of the global hexagonal lattice structure. The transport of particles is superdiffusive and ascribed to Levy statistics on short time scales and to memory effects on the longer scales influenced by cooperative motion. At these longer time scales, the transport is governed by vortex flows covering a wide spectrum of temporal and spatial scales.

• OSTI ID: 20777095
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.105010; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
HEXAGONAL LATTICES
HIGH-FREQUENCY DISCHARGES
PLASMA
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
STATISTICS
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
VORTEX FLOW
VORTICES