Physics of magnetized dusty plasmas

Abstract

In this review, we summarize recent advances in the field of dusty plasmas at strong magnetic fields. Special emphasis is put on situations where experimental laboratory observations are available. These generally comprise dusty plasmas with magnetized electrons and ions, but unmagnetized dust. The fundamental parameters characterizing a magnetized (dusty) plasma are given and various effects in dusty plasmas under magnetic fields are presented. As examples, the reaction of the dust component to magnetic-field modified plasma properties, such as filamentation, imposed structures, dust rotation, nanodusty plasmas and the resulting forces on the dust are discussed. Further, the behavior of the dust charge is described and shown to be relatively unaffected by magnetic fields. Wake field formation in magnetized discharges is illustrated: the strength of the wake field is found to be reduced with increased magnetic field. The propagation of dust acoustic waves in magnetized dusty plasmas is experimentally measured and analyzed indicating that the wave dynamics are not heavily influenced by the magnetic field. Only at the highest fields ($$B> 1$$ B > 1 T) the wave activity is found to be reduced. Moreover, it is discussed how dust-cyclotron waves might be used to indicate a magnetized dust component. Finally, implications of a magnetized dusty plasma are illustrated.

Editorial : Reviews of Modern Plasma Physics: Volume 6

“…Topical collection "Novel Aspects of Dusty Plasma Physics (DP)" is organized by Abhijit Sen and Lin I and published two articles in 2021 (Melzer et al 2021;Hu and Zhang 2021) and three articles in 2022 (Ratynskaia et al 2022;Jiang and Du 2022;Bandyopadhyay and Sen 2022).…”

Magnetized dusty plasma: On issues of its complexity and magnetization of charged dust particles

“…The magnetic field, mass of dust particles, the number density of neutrals (gas pressure), velocity of dust particles, and charge of dust particles are major factors that directly affect the condition of dust magnetization. [98,99] The magnetization of dust particles (100 nm-10 μm) of low mass density (1-1.5 gm/cm 3 ) and low thermal velocity (10 mm-20 mm/s) is only possible at high magnetic field (2 < B < 5 T) in a moderate collisional plasma. It should be noted that theoretical estimation of dust magnetization [98] in this range of size and velocity is only possible if plasma (dust) parameters remain constant with increasing external B-field.…”

Dust and powder in fusion plasmas: recent developments in theory, modeling, and experiments

“…Moreover, dust particle number density is usually high so that a significant fraction of the total charge is carried by the dust, altering the overall quasineutrality condition. Finally, with exception of recent laboratory set-ups (Melzer et al 2021), the magnetic field in typical dusty-plasma experiments, if any, is weak.…”