Vortex merging in strongly coupled dusty plasmas using a visco-elastic fluid model

This work is a numerical study of the two-dimensional merging phenomena between two Lamb–Oseen co-rotating vortices in a viscoelastic fluid. We use a generalized hydrodynamics fluid model to study vortex merging in a strongly coupled dusty plasma medium, which exhibits characteristics similar to a viscoelastic fluid. Several aspects influencing the merging phenomena are considered: the aspect ratio (core size/separation distance), the relative circulation strengths of each vortex, and the coupling strength of the medium. Unlike classical hydrodynamic fluids, we find that for viscoelastic fluids, shear waves facilitate the merging events even for widely separated vortices. The merging process is accelerated in media with higher coupling strengths and the resultant vortex shape decays more quickly as well. It is also found that varying either the vortex scale or the vortex circulation strength can result in a similar merging process, where a smaller (larger) vortex acts like a vortex with weaker (stronger) circulation. Finally, we show that a Poynting-like conservation theorem is satisfied for the examined merging processes.