Stationary Velocity and Charge Distributions of Grains in Dusty Plasmas

Abstract

Within the kinetic approach velocity and charge distributions of grains in stationary dusty plasmas are calculated and the relations between the effective temperatures of such distributions and plasma parameters are established. It is found that the effective temperature which determines the velocity grain distribution could be anomalously large due to the action of accelerating ionic bombarding force. The possibility to apply the results obtained to the explanation of the increasing grain temperature in the course of the Coulomb-crystal melting by reduction of the gas pressure is discussed. This paper was received by Phys.Rev.Lett. on 11 August 1999. As potential referees the authors offered to Editor the following persons: V.N.Tsytovich, Russia; R.Bingham, UK; D.Resendes, Portugal; G.Morfill, P.Shukla, Y.M.Yu., Germany.