Thermoemission (dust-electron) plasmas: theory of neutralizing charges

Charging of dust in thermal collisional plasmas

Thermal strongly collisional dusty plasma is studied. The electrical neutrality of the plasma suggests that the gas phase has some electrostatic energy when the plasma contains charged dust grains. The value of this energy determines the interphase interaction and ionization balance in the plasma. Proceeding from this, a new method of calculation of the dust grains' charges in plasmas with any number of ions (down to zero) has been proposed. The correspondence between the theory and the experimental data is demonstrated.

Homogeneous nucleation in thermal dust-electron plasmas

The homogeneous nucleation in the dust-electron plasma, which is formed in the zone of metal powder combustion products in the premixed laminar two-phase flame, has been studied. The classical nucleation theory has been used to determine the free energy and the critical radius of the nucleus. The influence of nucleus charging as a result of interaction between the nucleus and the electronic component of the plasma on the free energy has been determined. The dependence of the nucleus' critical radius on the plasma temperature and number density of the plasma's dust component has been determined. The proposed theoretical model shows that nucleation in the thermal dust-electron plasma is a self-consistent process, which is opposed to changing of the plasma's disperse structure.

Nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation in spherical symmetry

The Poisson-Boltzmann problem in spherical symmetry has been considered using the distribution of a self-consistent potential around a charged grain in a thermal collisional plasma as an example. The qualitative patterns of all possible solutions have been presented and a study of their asymptotics has been carried out. It has been demonstrated that for large potentials it is possible to neglect the curvature of the grain surface and to use the solution of the plane problem. It has also been demonstrated that the electrical interaction of the grains is possible only at distances smaller than eight screening lengths.