Investigation of Yukawa clusters

The investiation of Yukawa clusters formed by the charged microparticles in a plasma is a new field of research. In comparison to hard-sphere and pure Coloumb interactions, the screened Couloumb (Yukawa) interaction is weak, resulting in different stable and metastable plasma configurations. On Earth, due to the influence of gravity, past work has been restricted to the study of 2-D structures. Under microgravity conditions, however, true 3-D homogenous structures can be formed and investigated. The team proposes to address a number of processes, including the kinetics of nucleation and melting, and the geometrical structure for different number of microparticles. Excitation of cluster global modes, using electromagnetic waves, will yield information on the cluster's surface tension. Shock waves will be excited by shooting fast projectiles into the plasma. This will provide data on the bulk and shear properties of the cluster. Finally, the interaction of two distinct clusters and their collision can be studies, resulting in fundamental information about coalescene, energy and momentum dissipation. These experiments can also be carried out with clusters formed with different particles to produce alloys or glass-like structutres. The experimental results will be compared with theoretical models and, especially, with numerical simlations.

U.K Based researchers involved in this project

R. Bingham: (link to personal webpage)

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