Head-on collision of dust-acoustic solitons in a strongly coupled dusty plasma

Abstract

The collision between two counterpropagating dust acoustic solitary waves in a strongly coupled dusty plasma has been observed. The measured velocity and width of the solitary wave agree with the solution of the Korteweg-de Vries equation derived by using the generalized hydrodynamic model. The two counterpropagating solitary waves of equal amplitude merge into a single pulse with twice the individual soliton amplitude and then pass through each other. The solitons suffer a small time delay in propagation after collision. The measured delay time obtained from their trajectories is also presented.