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Shock Waves

Shock Waves

While deriving the Doppler formula for the observed frequency of a sound wave, it is assumed that the speed of sound in the medium is greater than the source's speed through it. When this condition is breached, a shock wave occurs.
When the source's speed approaches the speed of sound, constructive interference between successive wavefronts emitted by the source occurs immediately behind it. Initially, scientists believed that this constructive interference would result in such high pressures...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses

Published on: July 2, 2012

Observation of collisionless shocks in laser-plasma experiments.

L Romagnani¹, S V Bulanov, M Borghesi

¹School of Mathematics and Physics, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. l.romagnani@qub.ac.uk

Physical Review Letters

|September 4, 2008

Summary

Collisionless shock waves and ion-acoustic solitons propagate in rarefied plasma. Proton probing revealed shock structures and electric fields, analyzed using the Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers equation.

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Last Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses

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Measurement and Analysis of Atomic Hydrogen and Diatomic Molecular AlO, C2, CN, and TiO Spectra Following Laser-induced Optical Breakdown

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Published on: February 14, 2014

Area of Science:

Plasma physics
Nonlinear wave phenomena
Laser-plasma interactions

Background:

Intense laser pulses interacting with solid targets can generate rarefied plasmas.
Understanding wave propagation in such plasmas is crucial for various applications.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate the propagation of collisionless shock waves and ion-acoustic solitons.
Characterize shock structures and electric field distributions in detail.

Main Methods:

Utilized proton probing techniques for high-resolution diagnostics.
Excited waves using long, intense laser pulses on solid targets.
Analyzed experimental data using the Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers equation.

Main Results:

Reconstructed detailed structures of collisionless shock waves.
Mapped electric field distributions associated with the shocks.
Observed ion-acoustic solitons in rarefied plasma conditions.

Conclusions:

The study provides insights into nonlinear wave propagation in rarefied plasmas.
Experimental findings align with theoretical models like the Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers equation.
High-resolution proton probing is effective for diagnosing plasma phenomena.