STUDY OF SELF-ORGANIZED DUST CHAINS WITH ACCOUNT FOR ION DRAG

Abstract

This paper describes a numerical study of the equilibrium parameters of a one-dimensional chain consisting of three dust particles levitating in the electric fields of a gas-discharge plasma. A numerical model is considered in which the movement of dust particles is simulated with account for the action of the Coulomb repulsion force, external electric field, gravity, electrostatic force induced by a plasma space charge, and ion drag described analytically. The spatial distributions of the plasma space charge are compared with a potential around dust particles and the equilibrium structural parameters of a dust chain, depending on the fact whether the ion drag is taken into account analytically or not. It is shown that, when the ion drag is taken into account analytically, the dust chain as a whole is displaced in the direction of the ion flow. In this case, the distances between the dust particles turn out to be smaller than in the case where the ion drag is neglected.