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Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 3649–3652 (1999)

Mach Cones in a Coulomb Lattice and a Dusty Plasma

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D. Samsonov, J. Goree*, Z. W. Ma, and A. Bhattacharjee
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242

H. M. Thomas and G. E. Morfill
Max Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, 85740 Garching, Germany

Received 11 May 1999; published in the issue dated 1 November 1999

Mach cones, or V-shaped disturbances created by supersonic objects, have been detected in a two-dimensional Coulomb crystal. Electrically charged microspheres levitated in a glow-discharge plasma formed a dusty plasma, with particles arranged in a hexagonal lattice in a horizontal plane. Beneath this lattice plane, a sphere moved faster than the lattice sound speed. Mach cones were double, first compressive then rarefactive, due to the strongly coupled crystalline state. Molecular dynamics simulations using a Yukawa potential also show multiple Mach cones.

© 1999 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3649
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3649
PACS:
52.25.Zb

*Electronic address: john-goree@uiowa.edu

 
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