Kiel 2011 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 5: Komplexe / Staubige Plasmen

P 5.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 15:40–15:55, HS H

Complex Plasmas in external fields: Role of non-Hamiltonian interactions — •Markus Thoma¹, Alexei Ivlev¹, Christoph Räth¹, Glenn Joyce², and Gregor Morfill¹ — ¹Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, 85741 Garching, Germany — ²Icarus Research Inc., Bethesda, Maryland 20814, USA

Dedicated experiments with strongly coupled complex plasmas in external electric fields were carried out under microgravity conditions using the PK-4 dc discharge setup. The focus was put on the comparative analysis of the formation of string-like anisotropic structures due to reciprocal (Hamiltonian) and non-reciprocal (non-Hamiltonian) interactions between microparticles (induced by ac and dc fields, respectively). The experiments complemented by numerical simulations demonstrate that the responses of complex plasmas in these two regimes are drastically different. The observed distinction is a striking manifestation of intrinsic thermodynamic openness of driven strongly coupled systems