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Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Non-equilibrium Microwave Plasma for Efficient High Temperature Chemistry
Published on: August 1, 2017
Complex plasmas in external fields: the role of non-hamiltonian interactions
1Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, 85741 Garching, Germany.
Abstract:
Dedicated experiments with strongly coupled complex plasmas in external electric fields were carried out under microgravity conditions using the PK-4 dc discharge setup. The focus was put on the comparative analysis of the formation of stringlike anisotropic structures due to reciprocal (hamiltonian) and nonreciprocal (non-hamiltonian) interactions between microparticles (induced by ac and dc fields, respectively). The experiments complemented by numerical simulations demonstrate that the responses of complex plasmas in these two regimes are drastically different. It is suggested that the observed difference is a manifestation of intrinsic thermodynamic openness of driven strongly coupled systems.
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