Experiments and Theory of Dusty Plasmas

Journal Article · Tue Nov 29 00:00:00 EST 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3659734· OSTI ID:21612193

Shukla, P K ^[1]

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1. International Centre for Advanced Studies in Physical Sciences and Institute for Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, D-44780 Bochum (Germany) and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92903 (United States)

The purpose of this paper is to present the most important theoretical and experimental discoveries that have been made in the area of dusty plasma physics. We describe the physics and observations of the well celebrated dust acoustic wave (DAW) and the dust ion-acoustic wave (DIAW) in dusty plasmas with weakly coupled dust grains, as well as the dust Coulomb crystal and dust lattice oscillations (DLOs) in dusty plasmas with strongly coupled dust grains. In dusty plasmas, the dust charge fluctuation is a dynamical variable, which provides a novel collisionless damping of the DA and DIA waves. The latter and the DLOs are excited by external sources, which are here discussed. Besides the Debye-Hueckel short-range repulsive force between like charged dust grains, there are novel attractive forces (e.g. due to dipole-dipole dust particle interactions, overlapping Debye spheres, ion focusing and ion wakefields, dipole magnetic moments etc.), which provide unique possibilities for attracting charged dust particles of similar polarity. The dust particle attraction is responsible for the formation of dust Coulomb crystals in laboratory dusty plasmas, as well as for the formation of planets and large astrophysical bodies in the Milky Way galaxy and in interstellar media. Furthermore, the nonlinear DAW, DIAW, and DLOs also appear in the form of solitary and shock waves, the physics and observations of which are briefly discussed. Finally, we discuss possible applications of dust-in-plasmas and dusty plasmas in laboratory and space.

• OSTI ID: 21612193
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1397, Issue 1; Conference: 6. international conference on the physics of dusty plasmas, Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany), 16-20 May 2011; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3659734; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
COLLISIONS
COULOMB FIELD
COUPLING
CRYSTALS
DAMPING
DIPOLES
DUSTS
FLUCTUATIONS
ION ACOUSTIC WAVES
IONS
MAGNETIC MOMENTS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
OSCILLATIONS
PLASMA
SHOCK WAVES
SOUND WAVES
CHARGED PARTICLES
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ION WAVES
MULTIPOLES
PHYSICS
PLASMA WAVES
VARIATIONS