Perspectives of experimental and theoretical studies of self-organized dust structures in complex plasmas under microgravity conditions

Abstract

We review research aimed at understanding the phenomena occurring in a complex plasma under microgravity conditions. Some aspects of the work already performed are considered that have not previously been given sufficient attention but which are potentially crucial for future work. These aspects, in particular, include the observation of compact dust structures that are estimated to be capable of confining all components of a dust plasma in a bounded spatial volume; experimental evidence of the nonlinear screening of dust particles; and experimental evidence of the excitation of collective electric fields. In theoretical terms, novel collective attraction processes between likely charged dust particles are discussed and all schemes of the shadowy attraction between dust particles used earlier, including in attempts to interpret observations, are reviewed and evaluated. Dust structures are considered from the standpoint of the current self-organization theory. It is emphasized that phase transitions between states of self-organized systems differ significantly from those in homogeneous states and that the phase diagrams should be constructed in terms of the parameters of a self-organized structure and cannot be constructed in terms of the temperature and density or similar parameters of homogeneous structures. Using the existing theoretical approaches to modeling self-organized structures in dust plasmas, the parameter distribution of a structure is recalculated for a simpler model that includes the quasineutrality condition and neglects diffusion. These calculations indicate that under microgravity conditions, any self-organized structure can contain a limited number of dust particles and is finite in size. The maximum possible number of particles in a structure determines the characteristic inter-grain distance in dust crystals that can be created under microgravity conditions. Crystallization criteria for the structures are examined and the quasispherical chambers proposed for future experiments are discussed.