Fully Self-Consistent Ion-Drag-Force Calculations for Dust in Collisional Plasmas with an External Electric Field

Journal Article · Fri Jul 11 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.101.025001· OSTI ID:21134112

Patacchini, Leonardo; Hutchinson, Ian H ^[1]

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1. Plasma Science and Fusion Center and Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)

The ion drag force on a spherical dust particle immersed in a flowing plasma with an external electric field is self-consistently calculated using the particle-in-cell code SCEPTIC in the entire range of charge-exchange collisionality. Our results, not based on questionable approximations, extend prior analytic calculations valid only in a few limiting regimes. Particular attention is given to the force direction, shown never to be directed opposite to the flow except in the continuum limit, where other forces are of a much stronger magnitude.

• OSTI ID: 21134112
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.025001; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
APPROXIMATIONS
CHARGE EXCHANGE
COLLISIONAL PLASMA
DRAG
DUSTS
ELECTRIC FIELDS
IONS