Ion drag force on a dust grain in a weakly ionized collisional plasma

Abstract

The problem of calculating the ion drag force acting on a dust grain immersed in a weakly ionized collisional plasma is studied using an approach based on the direct numerical solution of the Vlasov-Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook kinetic equations. A uniform subthermal flow of argon plasma past a spherical dust grain is considered. The numerical computations are performed for a wide range of plasma pressures. On the basis of the obtained results, the effect of ion-neutral collisions on the ion drag force is analyzed in a wide range of ion collisionality. In the collisionless limit, our results are shown to be in good agreement with the results obtained by the binary collision approach. As the ion collisionality increases, the ion drag force is found to decrease sharply and even become negative, i.e., directed oppositely to the plasma flow. A qualitative explanation of this effect is presented and a comparison of our results with those obtained using the drift diffusion approach is discussed. The velocity dependence of the ion drag force in the highly collisional regime is examined. The relationship between the ion and the neutral drag forces in the highly collisional limit is analyzed and the possibility of a superfluid-like behavior of dust grains is discussed.