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Lane formation in 3D driven pair-ion plasmas: I Parallel External Forcing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2023

Vishal Kumar Prajapati
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, School of Basic Sciences, The Assam Kaziranga University, Jorhat 785006, Assam, India
Swati Baruah*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, School of Basic Sciences, The Assam Kaziranga University, Jorhat 785006, Assam, India
Rajaraman Ganesh
Affiliation:
Institute for Plasma Research, Bhat, Gandhinagar 382428, Gujarat, India
*
†Email address for correspondence: baruah.s1@gmail.com
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Abstract

Lane formation dynamics of driven three-dimensional pair-ion plasmas (PIP) is investigated. Extensive Langevin dynamics simulation is performed to study the influence of an external electric field on the behaviour of the PIP system. In our model, one half of the particles are pushed into the field direction by an external force $\boldsymbol {F}_{A}$ while the other half are pulled into the opposite direction by an external force $\boldsymbol {F}_{B}$. We show that if $\boldsymbol {F}_{A}$ and $\boldsymbol {F}_{B}$ are parallel, the system undergoes a non-equilibrium phase transition from a disordered state to a lane formation state parallel to the field direction with increasing field strength. The lanes are formed by the same kind of particles moving collectively with the field. The lane order parameter has been implemented to detect phase transition. Further, we show the lane formation in the presence of a time-varying external electric field. In particular, the effect of parallel forces are investigated. Unlike the previously reported two-dimensional case (Sarma, et al., Phys. Plasmas, vol. 27, 2020, p. 012106; Baruah, et al., J. Plasma Phys., vol. 87, issue 2, 2021, p. 905870202), for the time-varying electric field case, spontaneous formation and the breaking of lanes are not observed for all values of applied frequencies; however, the orderness varies and spontaneous formation and breaking of lanes is observed for values close to a critical frequency $\omega _c$. Further, some aspects of the lane formation dynamics of a PIP system are also studied in the presence of an external magnetic field, which reveals that the presence of an external magnetic field accelerates the lane formation process and introduces a drift of the lanes in a direction perpendicular to both electric and magnetic fields.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Typical simulation snapshots of the 3-D PIP system with parallel fields $\boldsymbol {F}_{A} = - \boldsymbol {F}_{B}$, in the absence of an external magnetic field ($\beta =0$) and lanes parallel to the field: (a) 3-D view; (b) view on the ($Y, Z$) plane; (c) view on the ($X, Z$) plane parallel to the field direction $Z$; (d) top 3-D view of the simulation chamber. The particles are rendered as spheres. For these snapshots we simulated $N=1000$ PIP particles. The parameters are $E_{0}=30 > E_{c}$, $\varGamma =2.5$, $\rho =0.245$ and $\omega =0$.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Typical simulation snapshots of the 3-D PIP system with parallel fields $\boldsymbol {F}_{A} = - \boldsymbol {F}_{B}$, taken at (a) $t\omega _{{\rm pd}} = 1$, (b) $t\omega _{{\rm pd}} = 380$, (c) $t\omega _{{\rm pd}} = 614$, (d) $t\omega _{{\rm pd}} =1640$. The particles are rendered as spheres. For these snapshots we simulated $N=1000$ PIP particles. The parameters are $E_{0}=30$, $\varGamma =2.5$, $\rho =0.245$, $\beta = 0.0$ and $\omega =0$.

Figure 2

Figure 3. Typical simulation snapshots of the 3-D PIP system with parallel fields $\boldsymbol {F}_{A} = - \boldsymbol {F}_{B}$, in the presence of different values of the external magnetic field ($\beta \neq 0$) and planes parallel to the field: (a) 3-D view with $\beta =0.001$; (b) 3-D view with $\beta =0.01$;(c) 3-D view with $\beta =0.1$, (d) 3-D view with $\beta =1.0$. There is $E \times B$ drift associated with the lanes formed in the presence of both electric and magnetic fields. We have tried to visualize the drift in figure 6. The particles are rendered as spheres. For these snapshots we simulated $N=1000$ PIP particles. The parameters are $E_{0}=30$, $\varGamma =2.5$, $\rho =0.245$ and $\omega =0$. External electric field is applied in the $Z$-direction and the magnetic field is applied in the $Y$-direction.

Figure 3

Figure 4. Time variation of order parameter ($\phi$) plot for the external magnetic field strength values $\beta =0, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0$, for a PIP system with parallel fields $\boldsymbol {F}_{A} = - \boldsymbol {F}_{B}$. The plot shows the $\phi$ value increases with increasing $\beta$, which indicates that the system moves towards a highly self-organized state. The parameters are $E_{0}=30$, $\varGamma =2.5$, $\rho =0.245$ and $\omega =0$. An external electric field is applied in the $Z$-direction and a magnetic field is applied in the $Y$-direction.

Figure 4

Figure 5. Critical field strength $E_{c}$ for the 3-D PIP system versus $\kappa$ for both in the presence ($\beta =1.0$) and absence ($\beta =0$) of the external magnetic field as obtained from the LD simulation. By increasing the field strength $E_{c}$, the system shows a phase transition from disordered state to a state characterized by lane formation. The transition is indicated by the symbols, the lines are a guide to the eye. The presence of an external magnetic field accelerates the lane formation at comparatively lower value of electric field strength. The other parameters are $\varGamma =2.5$, $\rho =0.245$ and $\omega =0$.

Figure 5

Figure 6. (a) Typical simulation snapshots of the 3-D PIP system with parallel fields $\boldsymbol {F}_{A} = - \boldsymbol {F}_{B}$, in the presence of an external magnetic field ($\beta =1.0$) taken at $t\omega _{{\rm pd}} = 1080, 1090, 1101, 1112, 1123$ and $1134$ and lanes parallel to the field are seen. The parameters used are $E_{0}=30$, $\varGamma =2.5$, $\rho =0.245$ and $\omega =0$. Motion of one particular lane is highlighted by a green box. (b) The $XZ$-average charge profile is plotted for the simulation snapshots taken at ‘(a)’ and the motion of same lane under green box is also highlighted. The number $Q_{XZ}$ is the numerical sum of all charges (positive and negative) in a respective grid.

Figure 6

Figure 7. (a) Time variation of order parameter ($\phi$) plot. (b) Typical simulation snapshots of the 3-D PIP system in the presence of parallel oscillatory fields $\boldsymbol {F}_{A} = - \boldsymbol {F}_{B}$, for different values of $E_0 = 20, 30, 40, 50, 80$ and $100$ in the absence of an external magnetic field ($\beta =0$). The parameters used are $\omega = 0.001$, $\varGamma =2.5$ and $\rho =0.245$.

Figure 7

Figure 8. Time variation of order parameter ($\phi$) plot in the presence of parallel oscillatory fields $\boldsymbol {F}_{A} = - \boldsymbol {F}_{B}$ with $E_0 = 50 > E_c$ for different values of $\omega = 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0$ and $1.2$. The parameters used are $\varGamma =2.5$, $\rho =0.245$ and $\beta = 0.0$.

Figure 8

Figure 9. (a) The $\phi$ versus $\omega$ plot for both in the presence ($\beta =1.0$) and absence ($\beta =0$) of the external magnetic field. (b) The $E_c$ versus $\omega$ plot for the 3-D PIP system as obtained from the LD simulation. The other parameters are $\varGamma =2.5$ and $\rho =0.245$.

Figure 9

Figure 10. Time variation of order parameter ($\phi$) plot in the presence of parallel forcing $\boldsymbol {F}_{A} = - \boldsymbol {F}_{B}$ with $E_0 = 40$ for different values of $\gamma = 5, 7, 10, 15$ and $20$. The parameters used are $\varGamma =2.5$, $\rho =0.245$ and $\beta = 0.0$.