학술논문
Slowing of acoustic waves in electrorheological and string-fluid complex plasmas.
Document Type
Article
Author
Source
Subject
*SOUND waves
*LONGITUDINAL waves
*WAVES (Fluid mechanics)
*PLASMA currents
*SPACE stations
*STRING theory
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Language
ISSN
1367-2630
Abstract
The PK-4 laboratory consists of a direct current plasma tube into which microparticles are injected, forming a complex plasma. The microparticles acquire many electrons from the ambient plasma and are thus highly charged and interact with each other. If ion streams are present, wakes form downstream of the microparticles, which lead to an attractive term in the potential between the microparticles, triggering the appearance of microparticle strings and modifying the complex plasma into an electrorheological form. Here we report on a set of experiments on compressional waves in such a string fluid in the PK-4 laboratory during a parabolic flight and on board the International Space Station. We find a slowing of acoustic waves and hypothesize that the additional attractive interaction term leads to slower wave speeds than in complex plasmas with purely repulsive potentials. We test this hypothesis with simulations, and compare with theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]