Fine Particles as Solute in Fine Particle (Dusty) Plasmas: Phase Separation and Diagram

Abstract

Analysis has been made on a possibility of phase separation and critical point as a solution of fine particles in plasmas, extending the previous work which pointed out this as one of two such possibilities. Fine particles are treated as a solute in the solvent of weakly coupled plasmas of electrons and ions. Examples of phase diagram have been obtained and coexisting phases are shown to have fine particles which differ in densities by almost one order of magnitude.