Effect of thermophoretic forces on the formation of ordered structures of macroparticles in a thermal plasma

The thermophoretic interaction of macroparticles and its effect on the form ation of ordered structures of macroparticles in plasma was studied. It was shown that coexistence of regions with a chaotic arrangement of particles and regions of ordered structures is typical of a thermal plasma with stron g interaction of the macroparticles. Computer simulation of a system of str ongly interacting macroparticles, taking account of the thermophoretic inte raction of the particles, was performed. The results showed that the thermo phoretic attractive forces explain the form of the spatial nonuniformity as sociated with the grouping of particles in small domains. The experimentall y obtained correlation function was very close to the correlation function obtained in the computer simulation. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics . [S1063-7761(99)00811-2].