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.

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

Dusty plasma experiments can be performed quite easily in a strong coupling regime. In our previous work [V. S. Dharodi, S. K. Tiwari, and A. Das, Physics of Plasmas 21, 073705 (2014)]PHPAEN1070-664X10.1063/1.4888882, we numerically explored such plasmas with constant density and observed the transverse shear (TS) waves from the rotating vortex. Laboratory dusty plasmas are good examples of homogeneous plasmas; however, heterogeneity (e.g., density, temperature, and charge) may be due to the existence of voids, different domains with different orientations, presence of external forces like magnetic and/or electric, size or charge imbalance, etc. Here, we examine how the density heterogeneity in dusty plasmas responds to the circularly rotating vortex monopoles, specifically, smooth and sharp cutoff. For this purpose, we have carried out a series of two-dimensional fluid simulations in the framework of the incompressible generalized hydrodynamics fluid model. The rotating vortices are placed at the interface of two incompressible fluids with different densities. The smooth rotating vortex causes two effects: First, the regions are stretched to form the spiral density waves; second, there is a shear in flows which consequently induces the TS waves. The TS waves move slower in the denser side than in the lighter side. The difference in speeds of the waves induces the net flow of the medium towards the lower density side. We notice that the spiral density arms are distinguishable in the early time while later they get smeared out. In sharp flows, the interplay between the TS waves and the vortices of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability distorts the formation of the regular spiral density arms around the rotor.

Sculpted ultracold neutral plasmas.

Ultracold neutral plasma (UNP) experiments allow for careful control of plasma properties across Coulomb coupling regimes. Here, we examine how UNPs can be used to study heterogeneous, nonequilibrium phenomena, including nonlinear waves, transport, hydrodynamics, kinetics, stopping power, and instabilities. Through a series of molecular dynamics simulations, we have explored UNPs formed with spatially modulated ionizing radiation. We have developed a computational model for such sculpted UNPs that includes an ionic screened Coulomb interaction with a spatiotemporal screening length, and Langevin-based spatial ion-electron and ion-neutral collisions. We have also developed a hydrodynamics model and have extracted its field quantities (density, flow velocity, and temperature) from the molecular dynamics simulation data, allowing us to investigate kinetics by examining moment ratios and phase-space dynamics; we find that it is possible to create UNPs that vary from nearly perfect fluids (Euler limit) to highly kinetic plasmas. We have examined plasmas in three geometries: a solid rod, a hollow rod, and a gapped slab; we have studied basic properties of these plasmas, including the spatial Coulomb coupling parameter. By varying the initial conditions, we find that we can design experimental plasmas that would allow the exploration of a wide range of phenomena, including shock and blast waves, stopping power, two-stream instabilities, and much more. Using an evaporative cooling geometry, our results suggest that much larger Coulomb couplings can be achieved, possibly in excess of 10.