# Viscoelastic effects on asymmetric two-dimensional vortex patterns in a strongly coupled dusty plasma

## TL;DR

This study investigates how viscoelasticity and compressibility influence vortex dynamics in strongly coupled dusty plasmas, revealing effects on wave propagation, vortex merging, and energy dissipation.

## Contribution

It provides new insights into the impact of viscoelasticity and compressibility on vortex behavior and wave dynamics in dusty plasma, highlighting modifications to vortex merging and wave damping.

## Key findings

- Viscoelasticity suppresses vorticity dispersion.
- Vortex mergers are significantly affected by memory effects.
- Viscoelasticity damps energy in sonic waves.

## Abstract

Strongly coupled dusty plasma medium is often described as a viscoelastic fluid that retains its memory. In a flowing dusty plasma medium, vortices of different sizes appear when the flow does not remain laminar. The vortices also merge to transfer energy between different scales. In the present work, we study the effect of viscoelasticity and compressibility over a localized vortex structure and multiple rotational vortexes in a strongly coupled viscoelastic dusty plasma medium. In case of single rotating vortex flow, a transverse wave is generated from the localized vortex source and the evolution time of generated waves is found to be reduced due to finite viscoelasticity and compressibility of the medium. It is found that the viscoelasticity suppresses the dispersion of vorticity. In the presence of multiple vortices, we find, the vortex mergers get highly affected in the presence of memory effect of the fluid, and thus the dynamics of the medium gets completely altered compared to a non-viscoelastic fluid. For a compressible fluid, viscoelasticity damps out the energy in the sonic waves generated in the medium. Thus a highly viscoelastic and compressible fluid, in some cases, behaves similarly to an incompressible viscoelastic fluid. The wave-front like rings propagate in elliptical orbits keeping the footprint of the earlier position of the point-vortex. The rings collide with each other even within the patch vortex region forming regions of high vorticity at the point of intersection and pass through each other.