title: Cavity dynamics and particle alignment in the wake of a supersonic projectile penetrating a dusty plasma.
abstract: The penetration of a projectile into a strongly coupled dusty plasma was studied in a radio-frequency discharge under microgravity conditions. A supersonic projectile produces an elongated dust-free cavity in its wake. The dynamics of the cavity is analyzed and compared with Langevin dynamics simulations. Besides a three-dimensional Mach cone structure, the simulation shows that the cavity dynamics can be subdivided into three phases: An opening phase with fixed time scale, a closing phase, whose duration is affected by the projectile speed and, finally, a phase of particle realignment in the target cloud, which persists for a long time after the closure of the cavity.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Christian-Albrechts-Universiät, Olshausenstr 40, D-24098 Kiel, Germany. arp@physik.uni-kiel.de
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Arp
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Caliebe
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Piel