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Particle chains in a dilute dusty plasma with subsonic ion flow
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Particle chains in a dilute dusty plasma with subsonic ion flow

O Arp, J Goree and A Piel
Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics, Vol.85(4 Pt 2), pp.046409-046409
04/2012
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.85.046409
PMID: 22680588

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Abstract

Chains of charged dust particles are observed aligned with a subsonic ion flow. These chains are found in dilute regions, near the midplane of a parallel-plate radio-frequency plasma under microgravity conditions. The argon ion flow speed near these chains was estimated to be of order 10(2) m/s, corresponding to an ion acoustic Mach number M<0.1. The chains were observed to be stable in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. This stability suggests that there is a transverse restoring force. The transverse components of the ion-drag force or electrostatic wake-field forces could provide such a stabilizing effect. The chain appears to terminate with a final dust particle that is located in a dilute region; this observation suggests a possible attractive force in the longitudinal direction in the presence of a subsonic ion flow.

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