Effect of the charged dust grains on the neutral induced low frequency drift instability in a weakly ionized and magnetized dusty plasma

The role of neutrals in a partially ionized collisional dusty plasma is ana lyzed. In a magnetized inhomogeneous collisional dusty plasma, where plasma components have density gradients, neutrals can affect the instability sig nificantly. Neutral induced instability and the effect of charge variation in such a dusty plasma are investigated. Dust size can control the neutral scale length which can answer the observed density irregularities in the io nosphere. Small sized dust particles favour damping due to charge variation while large sized particles assist collisional damping. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.