Collective Phenomena in Strongly Coupled Dissipative Systems of Charged Dust: from Ground to Microgravity Experiments

In present work the formation of dusty plasma structures in cryogenic glow dc discharge was investigated. The ordered structures from large number (～10⁴) of charged diamagnetic dust particles in a cusp magnetic trap have been also studied in microgravity conditions. The super high charging (up to 5·10⁷e) of dust macroparticles under direct stimulation by an electron beam is experimentally performed and investigated. The results of the investigation of Brownian motion for strongly coupled dust particles in plasma are presented. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Charge and structures of dust particles in a gas discharge at cryogenic temperatures

A dusty plasma in a dc gas discharge is considered at low (cryogenic) temperatures of the gas. The formation of dusty plasma structures consisting of monodisperse poly(styrene) particles (d = 5.44 μm) in a dc glow discharge is experimentally investigated at cryogenic temperatures in the range from 4.2 to 77 K, and the results obtained are presented. The ion velocity distribution function and the charging of dust particles at cryogenic temperatures are calculated using the molecular dynamics method. The primary attention is focused on the correct inclusion of ion-atom collisions in the analysis. This is essential to the understanding of the main mechanisms of the experimentally observed increase in the density of dust particles with decreasing temperature of the gas in the discharge.     

Cover Picture: Contrib. Plasma Phys. 10/2013

Spheroidizing of dusty plasma structures at cryogenic temperatures: Compact spherical dust structure at tem‐perature 4.2 K (Al₂O₃ particles). (Figure 1c of the paper by O.F. Petrov et al.)     

Formation of dust-acoustic shock waves in a strongly coupled cryogenic dusty plasma

The nonlinear propagation of ultra-low-frequency dust-acoustic (DA) waves in a strongly coupled cryogenic dusty plasma has been investigated, by using the Boltzmann distributed electrons and ions, as well as modified hydrodynamic equations for strongly coupled charged dust grains. The reductive perturbation technique is used to derive the Burger equation. It is shown that strong correlations among negatively charged dust particles acts like a dissipation, which is responsible for the formation of the DA shock waves. The latter are associated with the negative potential, i.e. with the compression of negatively charged cryogenic dust particle density. It is also found that the effective dust-temperature, which arises from electrostatic interactions among negatively charged dust particles, significantly affects the height of the DA shock structures. New laboratory experiments at cryogenic temperature should be conducted to verify our theoretical prediction.     

Coexistence of positive and negative solitary potential structures in dusty plasma

A dusty plasma system consisting of electrons, ions, and negative as well as positive dust particles has been considered. The basic properties of arbitrary amplitude solitary potential structures that may exist in such a multi-component dusty plasma have been theoretically investigated by the pseudo-potential approach. It has been found that the presence of additional positive dust component does not only significantly modify the basic properties of solitary potential structures, but also causes the coexistence of positive and negative solitary potential structures, which is a completely new feature shown in a dusty plasma with dust of opposite polarity.     

Dispersion of Dust Acoustic Modes and Perturbations of Plasma Flux Balance

Previous considerations of dust acoustic waves is demonstrated to be inconsistent ‐ the required equilibrium state for perturbations was not defined since balance of plasma fluxes was neglecting. The self‐consistent treatment shows that plasma flux perturbations are accompanying any collective waves propagating in dusty plasmas and can play an important role in wave dispersion, wave damping and can create instabilities. This is illustrated by the derivation of dispersion relation for dust acoustic modes taking into account the plasma flux balances and plasma flux perturbations by waves. The result of this approach shows that the dust acoustic waves with linear dependence of wave frequency on the wave number exist only in restricted range of the wave numbers. Only for wave numbers larger than some critical wave number for low frequency modes the frequency can be have approximately a linear dependence on wave number and can be called as dust acoustic wave but the phase velocity of these waves is different from that which can be obtained neglecting the flux balance and depends on grain charge variations which are determined by the balance of fluxes. The presence of plasma fluxes previously neglected is the main typical feature of dusty plasmas. The dispersion relation in the range of small wave numbers is found to be mainly determined by the change of the plasma fluxes and is quite different from that of dust acoustic type, namely it is found to have the same form as the well known dispersion relation for the gravitational instability. This result proves in general way the existence of the collective grain attractions of negatively charged grains for for large distances between them and for any source of ionization. The attraction of grains found from dispersion relation of the dust acoustic branch coincides with that found previously for pair grain interactions using some models for the ionization source. For the existing experiments the effective Jeans length for such attraction is estimated to be about 8 – 10 times larger than the ion Debye length and the effective gravitational constant for the grain attraction is estimated to be several orders of magnitude larger than the usual gravitational constant. The grain attraction at large inter‐grain distances described by the gravitationlike grain instability is considered as the simplest explanation for observed dust cloud clustering, formation of dust structures including the plasma crystals. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Effect of Second Nonthermal Ion on the Characteristics of Dust Acoustic Solitary Waves in a Magnetized Dusty Plasma with Variable Dust Charge

The nonlinear dust acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized dusty plasma with nonthermal ions and variable dust electric charge is studied analytically. Using reductive perturbation method the Zakharov‐Kuznetsov (ZK) equation is derived and effect of nonthermal coefficient, external magnetic field, and variable dust electric charge on the amplitude and width of soliton in dusty plasma is investigated. With increasing the rate of dust charge variation with respect of plasma potential, the amplitude of generated solitary waves in magnetized dusty plasma increases to a constant magnitude while its width decreases. Increasing the nonthermal ions coefficient leads to a noticeable decrease in the amplitude of solitons while the width of soliton increases. The amplitude of generated solitary waves in such a dusty plasma is independent of applied external magnetic field but we will have more localized solitons with increasing the external magnetic field strength. It is found that solitons are strongly influenced by the direction of external magnetic field. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Dust‐ion‐acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized dusty pair‐ion plasma with Cairns‐Gurevich electrons and opposite polarity dust particles

The nonlinear dust‐ion‐acoustic (DIA) solitary structures have been studied in a dusty plasma, including the Cairns‐Gurevich distribution for electrons, both negative and positive ions, and immobile opposite polarity dust grains. The external magnetic field directed along the z‐axis is considered. By using the standard reductive perturbation technique and the hydrodynamics model for the ion fluid, the modified Zakharov–Kuznetsov equation was derived for small but finite amplitude waves and was provided the solitary wave solution for the parameters relevant. Using the appropriate independent variable, we could find the modified Korteweg–de Vries equation. By plotting some figures, we have discussed and emphasized how the different plasma values, such as the trapping parameter, the positive (or negative) dust number density, the non‐thermal electron parameter, and the ion cyclotron frequency, can influence the solitary wave structures. In addition, using the bifurcation theory of planar dynamical systems, we have extracted the centre and saddle points and illustrated the phase portrait of such a system for some particular plasma parameters. Finally, we have graphically investigated the behaviour of the solitary energy wave by changing the plasma values as well as by calculating the instability criterion; we have also discussed the growth rate of the solitary waves. The results could be useful for studying the physical mechanism of nonlinear propagation of DIA solitary waves in laboratory and space plasmas where non‐thermal electrons, pair‐ions, and dust particles can exist.     

Longitudinal Dust Lattice Shock Wave in a Strongly Coupled Complex Dusty Plasma

The effect of hydrodynamical damping that arises due to the irreversible processes within the system have been studied on 1D nonlinear longitudinal dust lattice wave (LDLW) in homogeneous strongly coupled complex (dusty) plasma. Analytical investigation shows that the nonlinear wave is governed by Korteweg‐de Vries Burgers' equation. This hydrodynamical damping induced dissipative effect is responsible for the Burgers' term that causes the generation of shock wave in dusty plasma crystal. Numerical investigation on the basis of the glow‐discharge plasma parameters reveal that LDLW exhibits both oscillatory and monotonic shock. The shock is compressive in nature and its strength decreases (increases) with the increase of the shielding parameter κ (characteristic length L). The effects of dust‐neutral collision are also discussed. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Slowing down of charged particles in dusty plasmas with power‐law kappa‐distributions

We study the slowing down of a particle beam passing through the dusty plasma with power‐law κ‐distributions. Three plasma components, electrons, ions, and dust particles, can have a different κ‐parameter. By using Fokker‐Planck theory, the deceleration factor and slowing down time are derived and expressed by a hyper‐geometric κ‐function. Numerically, we study the slowing down property of an electron beam in the κ‐distributed dusty plasma. We show that the slowing down in the plasma depends strongly on the κ‐parameters of plasma components, and dust particles play a dominant role in the deceleration effects. We also show dependence of the slowing down on mass and charge of a dust particle in the kappa‐distributed plasma.     

Formation of liquidlike and crystalline structures in dusty plasmas

Under certain conditions in a dusty plasma, which is a low-temperature plasma with dust grains, the strong interaction between grains can give rise to gas-liquid-solid-state phase transitions. A study is made of ordered (liquidlike and crystalline) grain structures in various kinds of dusty plasmas: a thermal plasma at atmospheric pressure, a plasma of a dc glow discharge, and a UV radiation-driven plasma. The results of experimental observations of ordered dust structures are reported, and the characteristic features of the dust structures and the conditions for their appearance are discussed.     

Weakly dissipative dust acoustic solitons in the presence of superthermal particles

An investigation of the linear and non‐linear properties of low‐frequency electrostatic (dust acoustic) waves in a collisional dusty plasma with negative dust grains, Maxwellian electrons, and κ ‐distributed ions is carried out. Low dust–neutral collisions accounting for dissipation (wave damping effect) is considered. The linear properties of dust acoustic excitations are discussed for varying values of relevant plasma parameters. It is shown that large wavelengths (beyond a critical value) are overdamped. In the limit of low dust–neutral collision rate, we have derived a damped Korteweg de Vries (KdV) equation by using the reductive perturbation technique. Supplemented by vanishing boundary conditions, the time‐varying solution of damped KdV equation leads to a weakly dissipative negative potential soliton. The soliton evolution with the damping parameter and other physical plasma parameters (superthermality, dust concentration, ion temperature) is delineated.     

Variable‐size dust grains with generalized (r,q) electrons in a dusty plasma

The effect of the generalized (r, q) distribution on the non‐linear propagation of dust acoustic waves (DAWs) in a dusty plasma consisting of variable‐size dust grains is discussed. A Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation is derived using the reductive perturbation technique (RPT). The dust size obeys the power‐law dust size distribution (DSD). The present results reveal that rarefactive and compressive waves can propagate in the proposed plasma model. It is found that the spectral indices r and q influence the main properties of DAWs. Especially, the velocity, amplitude, and width of the DAW change drastically with r compared to changes in q.     

对含有非热力学平衡离子的尘埃等离子体中孤波特性的理论研究

得到了描述由尘埃颗粒电荷变化、非热力学平衡分布的离子和Boltzmann分布的电子组成的未磁化的热尘埃等离子体中的尘埃声波的修正的KdV (mKdV) 方程. 并对诸多的尘埃等离子体参数对尘埃声孤波结构的影响进行了理论研究，结果表明，尘埃等离子体参数决定着尘埃声孤波结构，且只在这些参数特别选定的一些区域，才会出现稳定的孤波. 关键词： 非热力学平衡离子 尘埃颗粒电荷变化 尘埃声孤波     

New Model of Dusty Plasma Particles Interaction

The main goal of this report is to obtain the macropotentials of dusty plasma particles interactions which account for the collective events in the medium and, then, to analyze their dependence on plasma parameters. It is shown that the attraction between conductive dust grains turns possible due to the polarization phenomenon (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Formation of large‐scale structures in four‐component dusty plasmas

A possibility of self‐organization of magnetized four‐component dusty plasmas to double Beltrami (DB) state is explored. It is found that for a specific set of Beltrami parameters, the four‐component dusty plasma self‐organizes to DB state. The DB state characterized by two scale parameters may represent a paramagnetic or diamagnetic field structure. The impact of Beltrami parameters, charge and densities of dust grains on formation of self‐organized structures has also been investigated. This study has potential relevance to the formation of large‐scale structures in astrophysical plasmas.