Fluid equations for a dusty plasma with dust charge and mass distribution interacting with neutral dust through dust grain charging and secondary emission

Abstract

A set of fluid equations is obtained for a dusty plasma, with dust charge and mass distributions, interacting with ambient neutral dust through inelastic collision processes involving dust grain charging and discharging and secondary electron emission from the dust grains. These are obtained as appropriate moments of the Boltzmann–Vlasov equations for the positively and negatively charged dust components, neutral dust component, electrons, and ions. Also obtained are the charge and mass moments of these equations, which bring out a new term involving the charge dispersion in the equation for the phase space charge density. The inelastic collision process involving dust grain charging and discharging and secondary electron emission provides a coupling between the positive and negatively charged dust components and the neutral dust component. The source/sink terms in the equations of continuity, momentum balance, and heat equations then are the proper terms obtained systematically from the Boltzmann–Vlasov equations, as against some ad hoc formulations that have been used earlier. The set of equations so obtained should prove useful in analyzing the various dusty plasma phenomena: waves, instabilities, and nonlinear processes in space and astrophysical scenarios.