Science > Physics > First year student seeking help with SSB in dusty plasma crystal
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Science > Physics |
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"" |
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03 Oct 2005 10:25:20 PM |
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First year student seeking help with SSB in dusty plasma crystal |
As part of a first year university physics project I am investigating
the stability of particle arrangements in strongly non-ideal weakly
ionised plasmas. In the presence of external confining fields, the dust
grains immersed in the plasma environment align themselves into ordered
lattices forming so called plasma crystals. I have developed the
potential energy function of a two-grain dust molecule which I strongly
suspect is exhibiting symmetry breaking. I believe this because if one
plots the molecule rotation angle as one of the plasma parameters is
varied, the following plot is obtained, indicating a discontinuous
splitting of the system ground states.
alpha
| ------
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|-----
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|_______________ plasma parameter
The two branches reflect the equal favourability of the new equilibria.
Anyway, I am aware that characterising such a transition involves
calculation of the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix at the
equilibrium point. Unfortunately, after several weeks of reading, I am
still not even sure how to begin putting this theory into practice for
this problem, probably because the associated mathematics is mostly
beyond my level. Is there anyone here that could explain to me the
simplest way to characterise the transition using my potential energy
function?
Thanks
James
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| User: "Andy Resnick" |
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| Title: Re: First year student seeking help with SSB in dusty plasma crystal |
04 Oct 2005 08:20:44 AM |
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wrote:
As part of a first year university physics project I am investigating
the stability of particle arrangements in strongly non-ideal weakly
ionised plasmas. In the presence of external confining fields, the dust
<snip>
I would check out what John Goree at the University of Iowa is doing.
AFAIK, he's the world authority.
--
Andrew Resnick, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Case Western Reserve University
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