No Arabic abstract
The collective motion of dust particles during the mode-coupling induced melting of a two-dimensional plasma crystal is explored in molecular dynamics simulations. The crystal is compressed horizontally by an anisotropic confinement. This compression leads to an asymmetric triggering of the mode-coupling instability which is accompanied by alternating chains of in-phase and anti-phase oscillating particles. A new order parameter is proposed to quantify the synchronization with respect to different directions of the crystal. Depending on the orientation of the confinement anisotropy, mode-coupling instability and synchronized motion are observed in one or two directions. Notably, the synchronization is found to be direction-dependent. The good agreement with experiments suggests that the confinement anisotropy can be used to explain the observed synchronization process.
The observation is presented of naturally occurring pairing of particles and their cooperative drift in a two-dimensional plasma crystal. A single layer of plastic microspheres was suspended in the plasma sheath of a capacitively coupled rf discharge in argon at a low pressure of 1 Pa. The particle dynamics were studied by combining the top-view and side-view imaging of the suspension. Cross analysis of the particle trajectories allowed us to identify naturally occurring metastable pairs of particles. The lifetime of pairs was long enough for their reliable identification.
A simple vibrational model of heat transfer in two-dimensional (2D) fluids relates the heat conductivity coefficient to the longitudinal and transverse sound velocities, specific heat, and the mean interatomic separation. This model is demonstrated not to contradict the available experimental and numerical data on heat transfer in 2D complex plasma layers. Additionally, the heat conductivity coefficient of a 2D one-component plasma with a logarithmic interaction is evaluated.
The spectral asymmetry of the wave energy distribution of dust particles during mode-coupling induced melting, observed for the first time in plasma crystals by Couedel et al. [Phys. Rev. E 89, 053108 (2014)], is studied theoretically and by molecular-dynamics simulations. It is shown that an anisotropy of the well confining the microparticles selects the directions of preferred particle motion. The observed differences in intensity of waves of opposed directions is explained by a nonvanishing phonon flux. Anisotropic phonon scattering by defects and Umklapp scattering are proposed as possible reasons for the mean phonon flux.
The influence of a supersonic projectile on a three-dimensional complex plasma is studied. Micron sized particles in a low-temperature plasma formed a large undisturbed system in the new Zyflex chamber during microgravity conditions. A supersonic probe particle excited a Mach cone with Mach number M $approx$ 1.5 - 2 and double Mach cone structure in the large weakly damped particle cloud. The speed of sound is measured with different methods and particle charge estimations are compared to calculations from standard theories. The high image resolution enables the study of Mach cones in microgravity on the single particle level of a three-dimensional complex plasma and gives insight to the dynamics. A heating of the microparticles is discovered behind the supersonic projectile but not in the flanks of the Mach cone.
The three-dimensional instability of two coupled electromagnetic waves in an unmagnetized plasma is investigated theoretically and numerically. In the regime of two-plasmon decay, where one pump wave frequency is approximately twice the electron plasma frequency, we find that the coupled pump waves give rise to enhanced instability with wave vectors between those of the two beams. In the case of ion parametric decay instability, where the pump wave decays into one Langmuir wave and one ion acoustic wave, the instability regions are added with no distinct amplification. Our investigation can be useful in interpreting laser-plasma as well as ionospheric heating experiments.