Electron and ion thermal forces in complex (dusty) plasmas

Expressions for the ion and electron thermal forces acting on a charged grain, suspended in a weakly ionized plasma subject to temperature gradients, are derived. The main emphasize is on the conditions pertinent to the investigations of complex (dusty) plasmas in gas discharges. Estimates show that for the electron temperature gradients $\sim {\mathcal O}$(eV/cm) typically encountered in laboratory gas discharges, the electron thermal force can become an important player among other forces acting on micron-size grains.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Effective Coulomb Logarithm for One Component Plasma

An expression for the effective Coulomb logarithm in one-component-plasma is proposed, which allows to extend the applicability of the classical formula for the self-diffusion coefficient to the strongly coupled regime. The proposed analytical approximation demonstrates reasonable agreement with previous numerical simulation results. Relevance to weakly screened Yukawa systems (and, in particular, complex plasmas) is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Freezing and melting equations for the nn-6 Lennard-Jones systems

We generalize previous approach of Khrapak and Morfill [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 134}, 094108 (2011)] to construct simple and sufficiently accurate freezing and melting equations for the conventional Lennard-Jones (LJ) system to $n$-6 LJ systems, using the accurate results for the triple points of these systems published by Sousa {\it et al.} [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 136}, 174502 (2012)].Comment: 2 pages, one figur

Accurate freezing and melting equations for the Lennard-Jones system

Analyzing three approximate methods to locate liquid-solid coexistence in simple systems, an observation is made that all of them predict the same functional dependence of the temperature on density at freezing and melting of the conventional Lennard-Jones system. The emerging equations can be written as $T={\mathcal A}\rho^4+{\mathcal B}\rho^2$ in normalized units. We suggest to determine the values of the coefficients ${\mathcal A}$ at freezing and melting from the high-temperature limit, governed by the inverse twelfth power repulsive potential. The coefficients ${\mathcal B}$ can be determined from the triple point parameters of the LJ fluid. This produces freezing and melting equations which are exact in the high-temperature limit and at the triple point, and show remarkably good agreement with numerical simulation data in the intermediate region.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Ionization enhanced ion collection by a small floating grain in plasmas

It is demonstrated that the ionization events in the vicinity of a small floating grain can increase the ion flux to its surface. In this respect the effect of electron impact ionization is fully analogous to that of the ion-neutral resonant charge exchange collisions. Both processes create slow ion which cannot overcome grain' electrical attraction and eventually fall onto its surface. The relative importance of ionization and ion-neutral collisions is roughly given by the ratio of the corresponding frequencies. We have evaluated this ratio for neon and argon plasmas to demonstrate that ionization enhanced ion collection can indeed be an important factor affecting grain charging in realistic experimental conditions.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physics of Plasma

Shielding of a small charged particle in weakly ionized plasmas

In this paper we present a concise overview of our recent results concerning the electric potential distribution around a small charged particle in weakly ionized plasmas. A number of different effects which influence plasma screening properties are considered. Some consequences of the results are discussed, mostly in the context of complex (dusty) plasmas.Comment: This is a short review pape

Thermodynamics of Yukawa fluids near the one-component-plasma limit

Thermodynamics of weakly screened (near the one-component-plasma limit) Yukawa fluids in two and three dimensions is analyzed in detail. It is shown that the thermal component of the excess internal energy of these fluids, when expressed in terms of the properly normalized coupling strength, exhibits the scaling pertinent to the corresponding one-component-plasma limit (the scalings differ considerably between the two- and three-dimensional situations). This provides us with a simple and accurate practical tool to estimate thermodynamic properties of weakly screened Yukawa fluids. Particular attention is paid to the two-dimensional fluids, for which several important thermodynamic quantities are calculated to illustrate the application of the approach.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Plasma

Self-diffusion in strongly coupled Yukawa systems (complex plasmas)

We show that the idea of mapping between the Newtonian and Brownian diffusivities proposed and tested on a class of particle systems interacting via soft and ultra-soft potentials (IPL, Gaussian core, Hertzian, and effective star-polymer) by Pond {\it et al}., [Soft Matter {\bf 7}, 9859 (2011)] is also applicable to the Yukawa (screened Coulomb) interaction. Some of the implications of this result with respect to self-diffusion in strongly coupled complex (dusty) plasmas are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Plasma

Self-diffusion in strongly coupled Yukawa systems (complex plasmas)

We show that the idea of mapping between the Newtonian and Brownian diffusivities proposed and tested on a class of particle systems interacting via soft and ultra-soft potentials (IPL, Gaussian core, Hertzian, and effective star-polymer) by Pond {\it et al}., [Soft Matter {\bf 7}, 9859 (2011)] is also applicable to the Yukawa (screened Coulomb) interaction. Some of the implications of this result with respect to self-diffusion in strongly coupled complex (dusty) plasmas are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Plasma