Dust-acoustic shocks in strongly coupled dusty plasmas

S. E. Cousens*, V. V. Yaroshenko, S. Sultana, M. A. Hellberg, F. Verheest, I. Kourakis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Electrostatic dust-acoustic shock waves are investigated in a viscous, complex plasma consisting of dust particles, electrons, and ions. The system is modelled using the generalized hydrodynamic equations, with strong coupling between the dust particles being accounted for by employing the effective electrostatic temperature approach. Using a reductive perturbation method, it is demonstrated that this model predicts the existence of weakly nonlinear dust-acoustic shock waves, arising as solutions to Burgers's equation, in which the nonlinear forces are balanced by dissipative forces, in this case, associated with viscosity. The evolution and stability of dust-acoustic shocks is investigated via a series of numerical simulations, which confirms our analytical predictions on the shock characteristics.
Original languageEnglish
Article number043103
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume89
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 04 Apr 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Statistics and Probability

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