Electrical conductivity of the dusty plasma in the Enceladus plume

Abstract

The plasma conductivity is an important issue for understanding the magnetic field structure registered by Cassini in the Enceladus proximity. We have revise the conductivity mechanism to incorporate the plume nanograins as a new plasma species and take into account the relevant collisional processes including those accounting for the momentum exchange between the charged dust and co-rotating ions. It is concluded that in the Enceladus plume the dust dynamics affects the Pedersen and Hall conductivity more efficiently than the electron depletion associated with the presence of the negatively charged dust as has been suggested by Simon et al. (Simon, S., Saur, J., Kriegel, H., Neubauer, F. M., Motschmann, U., and Dougherty, U. [2011] J. Geophys. Res., 116, A04221, doi:10.1029/2010JA016338). The electron depletion remains a decisive factor for only the parallel conductivity. In the parameter regime relevant for the Enceladus plume, one finds increase of the Pedersen and decrease of the parallel components, whereas for the Hall conductivity the charged dust changes both - its value and the sign. The associated reversed Hall effect depends significantly upon the local dust-to-plasma density ratio. An onset of the reversed Hall effect appears to be restricted to outer parts of the Enceladus plume. The results obtained can significantly modify Enceladus’ Alfvén wing structure and thus be useful for interpretations of the magnetic field perturbations registered by the Cassini Magnetometer during the close Enceladus flybys.