| Issue |
EPL
Volume 88, Number 4, November 2009
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 45001 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Physics of Gases, Plasmas and Electric Discharges | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/88/45001 | |
| Published online | 30 November 2009 | |
Steepening of solitons (tsunami effect) in complex plasmas
1
Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, The University of Liverpool - Liverpool, L69 3GJ, UK, EU
2
Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik - D-85740 Garching, Germany, EU
Corresponding author: cdurniak@liv.ac.uk
Received:
21
September
2009
Accepted:
29
October
2009
The effect of soliton steepening has been observed experimentally and numerically in a complex plasma. Complex plasmas are mixtures of micron-sized microspheres with ion-electron plasmas. Formed in the sheath of a gas discharge they often form monolayer hexagonal quasi-crystals. A soliton propagating in a monolayer with decreasing number density gains amplitude even in the presence of a damping force. This effect is similar to tsunami formation. The results were found to differ from the prediction of the Korteweg-de Vries equation by up to a factor of 1.7.
PACS: 52.27.Lw – Dusty or complex plasmas; plasma crystals / 52.35.Fp – Electrostatic waves and oscillations (e.g., ion-acoustic waves)
© EPLA, 2009
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