Physics of the dusty Hall plasmas

Journal Article · Fri Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 2006 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2402148· OSTI ID:20860423

Pandey, B P; Vranjes, J ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109 (Australia)

The presence of the immobile charged dust in the plasma modifies the scale over which the Hall effect becomes important. For a positively charged dusty background this scale can become arbitrarily large. It is shown that the emergence of the Hall effect in an immobile charged background is related to the presence of an electric field that operates over the plasma gyration period. The generalized flux, which is a combination of the magnetic and fluid vortex flux, can decay due to the presence of the charge or the density inhomogeneities. The normal mode behavior of such a dusty plasma could be very different for positively and negatively charged grains. Whereas for negatively charged grains the usual magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes are present in the system, for positively charged grains, the Alfven mode may not exist if Zn{sub d}{approx}n{sub e}, where Z is the charge of the dust and n{sub d}(n{sub e}) are the dust (electron) number densities. In the presence of the inhomogeneities, inertialess dusty plasma is subject to the Hall instability. It is shown that the growth rate of the Hall instability is proportional to the whistler frequency. Since Hall drift is nondissipative in nature, this instability can play important role in redistributing the magnetic energy from the large to small scales.

• OSTI ID: 20860423
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 13; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALFVEN WAVES
DUSTS
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRONS
FLUIDS
HALL EFFECT
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA INSTABILITY
RADIATION TRANSPORT
VORTICES
WHISTLERS