Cavity dynamics and particle alignment in the wake of a supersonic projectile penetrating a dusty plasma

Journal Article · Wed Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics (Print)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVE.83.066404· OSTI ID:21554526

Arp, O; Caliebe, D; Piel, A ^[1]

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1. Institut fuer Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Christian-Albrechts-Universiaet, Olshausenstr. 40, D-24098 Kiel (Germany)

The penetration of a projectile into a strongly coupled dusty plasma was studied in a radio-frequency discharge under microgravity conditions. A supersonic projectile produces an elongated dust-free cavity in its wake. The dynamics of the cavity is analyzed and compared with Langevin dynamics simulations. Besides a three-dimensional Mach cone structure, the simulation shows that the cavity dynamics can be subdivided into three phases: An opening phase with fixed time scale, a closing phase, whose duration is affected by the projectile speed and, finally, a phase of particle realignment in the target cloud, which persists for a long time after the closure of the cavity.

• OSTI ID: 21554526
• Journal Information: Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics (Print), Vol. 83, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.83.066404; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1539-3755
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALIGNMENT
CAVITIES
CONES
DYNAMICS
PARTICLES
PLASMA
PROJECTILES
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
SIMULATION
STRONG-COUPLING MODEL
SUPERSONIC FLOW
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
VELOCITY
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
FLUID FLOW
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
PARTICLE MODELS
RADIATIONS