Jeans-Buneman instability in a dusty plasma

Abstract

A self consistent formulation of the Jeans instability of a dusty plasma with proper inclusion of charge dynamics is described. It is shown that charge fluctuations significantly affect the Jeans as well as the Buneman mode. For plasma particles (electrons and ions) in local thermal equilibrium, the Jeans lengthλ J is given byλ J≈λ g F(R, e, β/η), whereλ g is the Debye length of the charged grains,R is the square of the ratio of the Jeans to the plasma frequency of the grains,e is the square of the ratio of the Debye length of the grains and the plasma particles andβ/η is the ratio of the attachment to the decay frequency of the electronic charges to the grain surface. The functional form ofF is given in the text. Numerical investigation of the Jeans-Buneman mode for a two and three component plasma shows that the Jeans mode dominates atkλ D≪1 (wherek is the wave number andλ D is the Debye length of plasma particles), whereas atkλ D≫1 only the Buneman mode operates. Charge fluctuations reduce the area of overlap of the two modes. Furthermore, in the absence of gravity, there exists a new, charge fluctuation induced unstable mode in a streaming dusty plasma. Astrophysical applications of the results are discussed.