Cylindrical and spherical dust-acoustic shock waves in a strongly coupled dusty plasma

Abstract

Cylindrical and spherical dust-acoustic (DA) shock waves propagating in a strongly coupled dusty plasma are theoretically investigated. The generalized hydrodynamic model, in which highly charged dust are treated as strongly coupled, but electrons and ions are treated as weakly coupled, is employed. The modified Burgers equation, which is derived by using the reductive perturbation technique, is numerically solved to examine the effects of nonplanar cylindrical and spherical geometries on the basic features of the DA shock waves that are formed due to a strong correlation among highly negatively charged dust. It is shown that the effects of nonplanar cylindrical and spherical geometries significantly modify the basic properties of the DA shock structures. The implications of our results in laboratory dusty plasma experiments are briefly discussed.