Laboratory observations of self-excited dust acoustic shock waves

Dust acoustic waves have been discussed in connection with dust density structures in Saturn's rings and the Earth's mesosphere, and as a possible mechanism for triggering condensation of small grains in dust molecular clouds. Dust acoustic waves are a ubiquitous occurrence in laboratory dusty plasmas formed in glow discharges. We report observations of repeated, self-excited dust acoustic shock waves in a dc glow discharge dusty plasma using high-speed video imaging. Two major observations will be presented: (1) The self-steepening of a nonlinear dust acoustic wave into a saw-tooth wave with sharp gradient in dust density, very similar to those found in numerical solutions [1] of the fully nonlinear fluid equations for nondispersive dust acoustic waves, and (2) the collision and confluence of two dust acoustic shock waves. \\[4pt] [1] B. Eliasson and P. K. Shukla, Phys. Rev. E 69, 067401 (2004).