Plasma Effect of the Houston Horse
V. A. Pavlov, Ya. V. Tryaskin
St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, 198904 Russia
Keywords: предвестник ударной волны, сгустки плазмы, эффект лошади Хьюстона, shock wave precursor, plasmoids, Houston horse effect
Abstract
The effect of a strong shock wave on a weakly ionized collisional plasma was studied. The structure of the ion-acoustic perturbation caused by the shock wave was numerically investigated. The effect of the nonlinearity, dispersion, and dissipation on the formation of an oscillating wave profile was shown. It is found that in some modes, an increase in the shock wave velocity leads to a sharp increase in the concentration of charged particles and a reduction in the number of perturbation maxima. This change of the flow structure can be preceded by the formation of localized regions with an increased degree of plasma ionization. It is shown that the presence of plasmoids can lead to a strong influence of charges on the neutral component.
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