Effects of interaction between plasma-flow fields and electrostatic fields in dusty plasmas

Abstract

Interaction between plasma-flow fields and electrostatic fields is considered as the most appropriate method for describing the characteristic properties of a dusty plasma. This method makes it possible to treat the openness of the dusty plasma systems and to describe the processes of self-organization and change in interaction between dust particles that are caused by the presence of plasma flows, in particular, to describe attraction between the dust particles at large distances, as well as the pairing of identically charged particles and the formation of complicated dusty structures including dusty plasma crystals. Interaction between the plasma-flow fields and electrostatic fields was previously taken into account only when considering particular problems but was not considered as the general characteristic property of the dusty plasma. It is emphasized that the model taking into account the plasma-flow fields and their interaction with the electrostatic fields is the only model that allows simultaneous explanation of all basic parameters characterizing the condensation of the dusty plasma to plasma crystals (coupling constant Γ, interparticle distance rmin, and melting temperature Td) obtained in observations. Attraction between the dust particles at large distances leads to instability similar to gravitational instability, which was erroneously disregarded in previous descriptions of the dust sound. The corresponding critical size is similar to the Jeans radius. As a result of such attraction, dusty systems are structured, and such structuring is similar to known gravitational structuring and can explain the observation of dusty structures in most laboratory experiments on the dusty plasma.