Dissipative solitary wave at the interface of a binary complex plasma

TL;DR

This study investigates how dissipative solitary waves propagate across interfaces in a binary complex plasma under microgravity, revealing how interface width influences wave reflection through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

It presents the first combined experimental and simulation analysis of solitary wave behavior at interfaces in binary complex plasmas under microgravity conditions.

Findings

Wave reflection increases with narrower interfaces.

Experimental and simulation results are in good agreement.

Interface width affects wave propagation and reflection.

Abstract

The propagation of a dissipative solitary wave across an interface is studied in a binary complex plasma. The experiments were performed under microgravity conditions in the PK-3 Plus Laboratory on board the International Space Station using microparticles with diameters of 1.55 micrometre and 2.55 micrometre immersed in a low-temperature plasma. The solitary wave was excited at the edge of a particle-free region and propagated from the sub-cloud of small particles into that of big particles. The interfacial effect was observed by measuring the deceleration of particles in the wave crest. The results are compared with a Langevin dynamics simulation, where the waves were excited by a gentle push on the edge of the sub-cloud of small particles. Reflection of the wave at the interface is induced by increasing the strength of the push. By tuning the ion drag force exerted on big particles in the simulation, the effective width of the interface is adjusted. We show that the strength of reflection increases with narrower interfaces.