Piacente G, Peeters F M, Betouras J J
Department of Physics, University of Antwerp (Campus Drie Eiken), B-2610 Antwerpen, Belgium.
Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2004 Sep;70(3 Pt 2):036406. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.70.036406. Epub 2004 Sep 21.
We studied equally charged particles, suspended in a complex plasma, which move in a plane and interact with a screened Coulomb potential (Yukawa type) and with an additional external confining parabolic potential in one direction, which makes the system quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D). The normal modes of the system are studied in the presence of dissipation. We also investigated how a perpendicular magnetic field couples the phonon modes with each other. Two different ways of exciting the normal modes are discussed: (1) a uniform excitation of the Q1D lattice, and (2) a local forced excitation of the system in which one particle is driven by, e.g., a laser. Our results are in very good agreement with recent experimental findings on a finite single chain system [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 255003 (2003)]]. Predictions are made for the normal modes of multichain structures in the presence of damping.
