DUSTY PLASMA IONIZATION-INSTABILITY WITH ION DRAG

The effect of ion drag on negatively charged dust grains is considered as a possible mechanism of excitation of the dust-acoustic (DA) ioniz ation instability. It is found that DA waves are more and more damped as the coefficient for ion drag, mu, increases from zero to a critical value, mu(crit). For mu>mu(crit) a zero-frequency (nonpropagating) pe rturbation grows when the drag of the ions on the dust grains overcome s the effect of the perturbation electric field. (C) 1998 American Ins titute of Physics. [S1070-664X(98)04009-9].