Dynamical correlations and collective excitations of Yukawa liquids

TL;DR

This paper reviews computational and theoretical methods for analyzing dynamical correlations and collective excitations in strongly coupled Yukawa liquids, comparing simulation, theory, and experimental results.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive summary of approaches to describe many-particle Yukawa systems and details the dispersion relations of collective excitations in these systems.

Findings

Dispersion relations for collective excitations are obtained theoretically and via simulations.

Comparison of theoretical, simulation, and experimental results validates the models.

Analysis covers both liquid and solid phases of Yukawa systems.

Abstract

In dusty (complex) plasmas, containing mesoscopic charged grains, the grain-grain interaction in many cases can be well described through a Yukawa potential. In this Review we summarize the basics of the computational and theoretical approaches capable of describing many-particle Yukawa systems in the liquid and solid phases and discuss the properties of the dynamical density and current correlation spectra of three- and two-dimensional strongly coupled Yukawa systems, generated by molecular dynamics simulations. We show details of the $\omega(k)$ dispersion relations for the collective excitations in these systems, as obtained theoretically following the quasilocalized charge approximation, as well as from the fluctuation spectra created by simulations. The theoretical and simulation results are also compared with those obtained in complex plasma experiments.