Numerical Simulations and Analysis of Thermally Excited Waves in Plasma Crystals

A numerical model for a 2D-monolayer plasma crystal was established using the Box_tree code. Box_tree is a Barnes_Hut tree code which has proven effective in modeling systems composed of large numbers of particles. Thermally excited waves in this plasma crystal were numerically simulated and dispersion relations for both the longitudinal and transverse wave modes were found. These were compared with the dispersion relations extrapolated from experiment as well as a theory based on harmonic approximation. The results were found to agree with theoretical dispersion relations under different wave propagation directions with different particle charges and over a range of 0.9<k<5.