Jeans instability in the background of secondary electron emission in a complex plasma

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of secondary electron emission on the Jeans instability in a dusty plasma has been investigated. Owing to secondary electron emission, dust grains may have two stable equilibrium states one of which is negative and the other is positive. In this paper, the case of positive dust grains is reported. Positively charged dust grains attract lighter electrons and repel heavier ions, which resist charge condensation by restricting dust-mass enhancement. As secondary electron emission increases, the dust grains acquire more positive charge and acquire more electrons and repel more heavier ions; this increases the threshold of the Jeans instability. It has been shown that the growth rate of the Jeans instability decreases with increasing secondary electron emission when the equilibrium dust charge is positive.