Coupling of an acoustic wave to shear motion due to viscous heating

Viscous heating due to shear motion in a plasma can result in the excitation of a longitudinal acoustic wave, if the shear motion is modulated in time. The coupling mechanism is a thermal effect: time-dependent shear motion causes viscous heating, which leads to a rarefaction that can couple into a longitudinal wave, such as an acoustic wave. This coupling mechanism is demonstrated in an electrostatic three-dimensional (3D) simulation of a dusty plasma, in which a localized shear flow is initiated as a pulse, resulting in a delayed outward propagation of a longitudinal acoustic wave. This coupling effect can be profound in plasmas that exhibit localized viscous heating, such as the dusty plasma we simulated using parameters typical of the PK-4 experiment. We expect that a similar phenomenon can occur with other kinds of plasma waves.