Physics

 

Dr. Surabhi Jaiswal
Princeton University

Abstract: Plasma is generally defined as a fourth state of matter and has been studied for several decades. It is an ionized gas consisting of charged particles dominated by electromagnetic forces. Equilibrium plasma flows occur in many natural situations such as in galactic jets, solar wind etc. as well as in magnetic and inertial fusion experiments. The encounter of such plasma flows with a stationary charged object can give rise to a rich variety of dynamical phenomena such as one observes in the interaction of the solar wind with the earth or other
planets. The study of such an interaction in a laboratory setting can provide much insight into fundamental processes governing linear and nonlinear collective excitations arising from the encounter. We studied a variety of nonlinear waves in flowing complex plasma on the ground base laboratory setting and under the microgravity condition. Primary focus was to investigate the various techniques of flow generations and its implications in exciting the fast-moving precursor soliton in the upstream region along with the wake in the downstream region of flowing dust, oscillatory shock wave and dust density waves. The experimental observations were explained using the theoretical model based on the forced Korteweg-de Vries equation and Burgers type equation.

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