Interaction potential of microparticles in a plasma: Role of collisions with plasma particles - art. no. 046403

The interaction potential of two charged microparticles in a plasma is stud ied, Violation of the plasma equilibrium around the dust particles due to p lasma-particle inelastic collisions results in three effects: long-range (n on-Yukawa) electrostatic repulsion, attraction due to ion shadowing, and at traction or repulsion due to neutral shadowing (depending on the sign of th e temperature difference between the particle surface and neutral Gas). An analytical expression for the total potential is obtained and compared with previous theoretical results. The relative contribution of these effects i s studied in two limiting cases-an isotropic bulk plasma and the plasma she ath region. The kesults obtained are compared with existing experimental re sults on pair particle interaction. The possibility of the so-called dust m olecule formation is discussed.