Interaction of a Strongly Coupled Dusty Plasma medium with Non-Magnetic and Magnetic Obstacles

In laboratory settings, charged dust particles within plasma environments give rise to a variety of intriguing static and dynamic phenomena, including the formation of plasma crystals, shocks, voids, and vortices. By employing micron-sized dust particles, we can delve into these structures at a kinetic level and explore the diverse dusty plasma forces at play during their formation. 

Our experiment focuses on investigating strongly coupled dusty plasma featuring cylindrical and spherical obstacles immersed within it. Around this obstacle, a dust void emerges, where the outward electric field force balances with the inward ion drag force at its boundary. This void serves as an obstruction to a dusty plasma flow traveling at velocities ranging approximately from 3 to 10 cms^-1. Using a MATLAB-based open-access Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) code, we analyze the dynamics of individual dust particles surrounding the obstacle. Complementing our experimental work, molecular dynamics simulations corroborate our observations. Furthermore, we explore the behavior of dust particles around a magnetic spherical obstacle, yielding preliminary but intriguing results that we will present.