Effect of polarization force on the Mach cones in a complex plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates how polarization forces affect the structure and amplitude of Mach cones in complex plasmas by solving hydrodynamic equations for charged dust particles.

Contribution

It introduces the polarization force into the hydrodynamic model to analyze its impact on Mach cone propagation and structure in non-uniform plasmas.

Findings

Polarization force alters the lateral wake structures of Mach cones.

Maximum amplitude of dust density perturbation decreases with increased polarization interaction.

Structural changes depend on the polarization force at a fixed Mach number.

Abstract

We report the modifications of compressional Mach cone propagation characteristics due to \textcolor{black}{the} polarization force acting on micron size dust particles embedded in a non-uniform plasma. We solve the hydrodynamic fluid equations for highly charged dust particles to investigate the Mach cone by incorporating the polarization force in the momentum equation and observe the structural change on lateral wakes at different polarization force for a given Mach number and Epstein drag force. We also notice that the maximum amplitude of normalized dust density perturbation decreases with the increase of polarization interaction when the other parameters remain constant.