Heat Transport in Confined Strongly Coupled 2D Dust Clusters

Abstract

Dusty plasmas are a model system for studying strong correlation. The dust grains' size of a few micro-meters and their characteristic oscillation frequency of a few hertz allows for an investigation of many particle effects on an atomic level. In this article, we model the heat transport through an axially confined 2D dust cluster from the center to the outside. The system behaves particularly interesting since heat is not only conducted within the dust component but also transfered to the neutral gas. Fitting the analytical solution to the obtained radial temperature profiles allows to determine the heat conductivity $\kheat$. The heat conductivity is found to be constant over a wide range of coupling strengths even including the phase transition from solid to liquid here, as it was also found in extended systems by V. Nosenko et al. in 2008 \cite{PhysRevLett.100.025003}