Rotating vortices in two-dimensional inhomogeneous strongly coupled dusty plasmas: Shear and spiral density waves

Ring structural transitions in strongly coupled dusty plasmas

This paper presents a numerical study of ring structural transitions in strongly coupled dusty plasma confined in a ring-shaped (quartic) potential well with a central barrier, whose axis of symmetry is parallel to the gravitational attraction. It is observed that increasing the amplitude of the potential leads to a transition from a ring monolayer structure (rings of different diameters nested within the same plane) to a cylindrical shell structure (rings of similar diameter aligned in parallel planes). In the cylindrical shell state, the ring's alignment in the vertical plane exhibits hexagonal symmetry. The ring transition is reversible, but exhibits hysteresis in the initial and final particle positions. As the critical conditions for the transitions are approached, the transitional structure states exhibit zigzag instabilities or asymmetries on the ring alignment. Furthermore, for a fixed amplitude of the quartic potential that results in a cylinder-shaped shell structure, we show that additional rings in the cylindrical shell structure can be formed by decreasing the curvature of the parabolic potential well, whose axis of symmetry is perpendicular to the gravitational force, increasing the number density, and lowering the screening parameter. Finally, we discuss the application of these findings to dusty plasma experiments with ring electrodes and weak magnetic fields.

Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a compressible dust fluid flow

We report the first experimental observations of a single-mode Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a flowing dusty plasma in which the flow is compressible in nature. The experiments are performed in an inverted [Formula: see text]-shaped dusty plasma experimental device in a DC glow discharge Argon plasma environment. A gas pulse valve is installed in the experimental chamber to initiate directional motion to a particular dust layer. The shear generated at the interface of the moving and stationary layers leads to the excitation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability giving rise to a vortex structure at the interface. The growth rate of the instability is seen to decrease with an increase in the gas flow velocity in the valve and the concomitant increase in the compressibility of the dust flow. The shear velocity is further increased by making the stationary layer to flow in an opposite direction. The magnitude of the vorticity is seen to become stronger while the vortex becomes smaller with such an increase of the shear velocity. A molecular dynamics simulation provides good theoretical support to the experimental findings.