학술논문
Measurement of the speed of sound by observation of the Mach cones in a complex plasma under microgravity conditions
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Source
Phys. Plasmas 22, 023701 (2015)
Subject
Language
Abstract
We report the first observation of the Mach cones excited by a larger microparticle (projectile) moving through a cloud of smaller microparticles (dust) in a complex plasma with neon as a buffer gas under microgravity conditions. A collective motion of the dust particles occurs as propagation of the contact discontinuity. The corresponding speed of sound was measured by a special method of the Mach cone visualization. The measurement results are incompatible with the theory of ion acoustic waves. The estimate for the pressure in a strongly coupled Coulomb system and a scaling law for the complex plasma make it possible to derive an evaluation for the speed of sound, which is in a reasonable agreement with the experiments in complex plasmas.
Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table
Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table