Effect of Dust Grain Sputtering on Self-Gravitational Dusty Plasmas

Abstract

It is shown that the grain mass fluctuation, which is due to the grain sputtering by the attracted ions, may be at the root of a new instability in infinite, unmagnetized and homogeneous dusty plasmas. The growth rate is determined in the framework of two plasma models, viz., a cold and electron depleted plasma, and a plasma where electrons and ions are taken Boltzmannian. This instability may affect the Jeans as well as the agglomeration instabilities.