Shear Waves in an inhomogeneous strongly coupled dusty plasma

Abstract

The properties of electrostatic transverse shear waves propagating in a strongly coupled dusty plasma with an equilibrium density gradient are examined using the generalized hydrodynamic equation. In the usual kinetic limit, the resulting equation has similarity to zero energy Schrodinger's equation. This has helped in obtaining some exact eigenmode solutions in both cartesian and cylindrical geometries for certain nontrivial density profiles. The corresponding velocity profiles and the discrete eigenfrequencies are obtained for several interesting situations and their physics discussed.