New mechanism of dust growth and gravitation-like instabilities in astrophysical plasmas

Dust growth by agglomeration due to a new mechanism of dust attraction is s hown to compete in space plasmas with the standard accretion mechanism by n eutral particles. We demonstrate that dust growth by accretion of neutrals and plasma particles is aided by a pressure force due to a shadowing effect first proposed (Bingham & Tsytovich 2001) to explain rapid growth of dust in laboratory discharges. Consequences of this new force promoting dust gro wth by agglomeration in astrophysics are discussed including the role of a new gravitational-like instability which produces clumping enhancing the ra te of gravitational collapse.