Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4) microgravity experiment
Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4) is an ESA microgravity experiment, already on board of the International Space Station from October 2014, designed for the studies of complex plasmas. The facility allows use of complex plasmas as model systems to study static and dynamic processes of the liquid state at the kinetic level of individual particles.
Tid: On 2016-11-02 kl 13.00
Plats: Room V11, Teknikringen 72
Medverkande: Svetlana Ratynskaia
Solid dust grains of nanometer to micron size, when embedded in plasmas, get charged by constantly collecting plasma particles. For larger dust densities, the dust component is dominant as far as energy and momentum transfer is concerned and the system can be considered as one-component. This is the case of complex plasmas, where plasma only provides the dust charge and the screening of repulsive Coulomb forces. Such systems are typically engineered in the laboratory.
By control of the plasma / gas parameters and the dust densities, complex plasmas can attain virtually all known states of matter. Complex plasmas also possess a number of properties that distinguishes them us unique model systems for the study of generic processes of the strongly coupled state at the level of individual particles. The relevance of complex plasmas to conventional liquids and solids opens a completely new approach to the study of strongly coupled systems.