Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
DOI 10.1007/s10509-010-0527-3
O R I G I N A L A RT I C L E
Abstract Pseudopotential analysis has been employed to important and worthy works have been done to establish
derive a modified Sagdeev potential-like wave equation for the phenomena of sheath formation, not only in the lab-
studying the sheath formation in astroplasma problems. oratory discharge plasma as an industrial point of view
Complexity in process urges to derive the new findings nu- but also in space and cosmic phenomena supporting the
merically by using fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. Main satellite observations. Sheath is a nonlinear phenomenon
emphasis has been given to investigate the role of Corio- forms, as and when, charges are around a solid body shield-
lis force on the formation and changes on coherent struc- ing the bulk plasma from it (Riemann 1991; Self 1963;
tures of sheath suitably thought for the configuration of as- Chen 1984). The sheath separates the plasma from surface of
troplasma. Study determines the sheath thickness and po- the body in contact wherein a strong localized electric field
tential variation with the interaction of Coriolis force and generates between the plasma and negatively biased surface.
thereby finds dynamical behavior of levitated dust grains Study on sheath formation in plasma has been augmented
into the evaluated sheath region. This leads to find the dust through the derivation of Sagdeev potential wave equation
size, and corresponding forces generated on dust grain with (Sagdeev 1966), more commonly known as sheath equation.
a view to relate theoretical observations to real astrophysi- Sheath has been studied expeditiously in context to various
cal phenomena and could be of interest to explain formation physical aspects (some of them are reviewed by Riemann
of dust clouds in spaces. To support the observations, we (1991), Self (1963) and the references therein). In continu-
some thoughtful numeric plasma parameters for the case of ation Das et al. (1999) derived the plasma sheath in plasma
Earths Moon, have taken for graphical presentations. Over- to show salient features of electron absorbing wall and de-
all observations expect the study could be of interest as an scribed the effect of finite ion temperature as for the required
advanced knowledge in rotating astroplasmas, and expecting condition in forming sheath in plasmas. Further, theoreti-
many salient features which are yet to be known. cal developments on studying sheath have been done by the
Keywords Nonlinear waves Sheath in rotating plasmas incorporation of different effects like the presence of mag-
Nebulons: dust clouds netic field (Baishya and Das 2003), ionization (Das and Devi
2006) and collision effect (Baishya et al. 2000). While Liu et
al. (2003), Lei et al. (2006), Alterkop (2004) and other work-
1 Introduction ers have shown the experimental evidences on the formation
of plasma sheath so as to alleviate the uneven competition
The concept of sheath formation in plasmas started from between theory and experiments.
the famous experiment on discharge phenomena in labo- During the last few years the studies on sheath prop-
ratory by Tonks and Langmuir (1929). Since then many erties in plasmas contaminated by the presence of dust
grains has been receiving much attention too because of
its findings and common occurrences in laboratory (Sel-
G.C. Das () R. Chakraborty
wyn et al. 1990) and space plasmas (Mendis and Rosen-
Mathematical Science Division, Institute of Advance Study
in Science and Technology, Guwahati 781035, India berg 1993). Apart from laboratory experiments on dust in-
e-mail: ganesd@yahoo.com filtrated plasma, much development have been done in this
Astrophys Space Sci
context, to study the role of dust in various space environ- with high energy generation, and density depression therein
ments such as Moons atmosphere, Saturns ring and mag- causes the phenomena of soliton radiation. Later, Moslem et
netosphere. Nitter and Havnes (1992) have done pioneer- al. (2009) regard such observations convincingly in pulsar
ing work in finding the dynamics of levitated dust particle magnetosphere showing soliton collapses by the interaction
into sheath formed above astronomical bodies like Moon of rotation, and thus discussed that rotation could be of in-
and Asteroids. This is followed by the interest to extend the terest in many astrophysical environments.
study in magnetized plasma contaminated by dust charge Based on all these observations, our present study has
grains (Baishya and Das 2003; Das and Kalita 2004). Be- been motivated to investigate the formation and changes of
cause of dust charged grains in plasma, a new mode called coherent structure of sheath in slow rotating astroplasma.
dust acoustic mode (DAW) (Rao et al. 1990) can be found Our main aim is to evaluate the formation of sheath along
in nonlinear plasma-acoustic wave dynamics which has been with the changes on sheath due to presence of rotational ef-
confirmed latter by the experimental studies of Barkan et al. fect and thereafter the dynamics of a dust levitated into the
(1995). Recently Gao and Tian (2006a, 2006b), Tian and sheath have been studied to estimate the different charac-
Gao (2005) have yielded the effectiveness of dust grains in teristic behaviors of the dust particle, like dust potential at
the formation of stable dust atmosphere in various region in different places in sheath along with the estimation of dust
space. The dust grains immersed in ambient plasmas lead to size and the net force generated on it. By the use of appro-
electric charging by various processes, and play a fascinat- priate symbolic data for the levitated dust, interest has been
ing role in altering the plasma sheath properties in spaces focused to study the possible features on the formation of
(Goertz and Ip 1984; Northrop 1992; DeAngeles 1992). nebulonsa stable cloud of dust in space. In Sect. 2 the
Satellite observations have shown that active dust transport sheath equation in rotating plasma has been derived and the
in the solar system include: dust grains suspended above the numerical discussions regarding the sheath are carried out in
lunar surface, spokes in Saturns rings, and recent images Sect. 3. Finally, the characteristic behavior of stationary dust
of dust-filled craters from the NEAR spacecraft at Eros. In charged grain into the sheath has been derived in Sect. 4 and
each case, it has been suggested that dust transport is caused considering the numerical data of the Moon graphical pre-
by interaction between charged dust particles and electric sentation have been discussed expeditiously to support the
field near the surface. Furthermore, electrostatic dust lev- analytical developments in Sect. 5.
itation and transport have been theorized to occur on Mer-
cury, asteroids and comets as well as on the Moons surfaces
(Mendis et al. 1981; Rennilson and Criswell 1974) which 2 Basic equations and derivation of sheath equation in
are thought earlier to be with a pristine environment of neg- rotating plasma
ligible atmosphere or exosphere. A dust sensor placed on the
Moon by the Apollo 17 astronauts detected moving dust To study the coherent structures of sheath in spaces, we have
above the surface (Berg et al. 1976; Severnyi et al. 1975; considered simple plasma consisting of isothermal electrons
Nitter et al. 1998) which could have serious implications for and ions under the broad assumption Te Ti . The plasma
astronomical observations from the lunar surface. acoustic wave propagation, without loss of generality, has
Based on Chandrasekhars proposal (Chandrasekhar been taken unidirectional (taken along x-direction). Here
1953) on the role of Coriolis force in cosmic physics to plasma is rotating with a uniform angular velocity around
be effective in slow rotating stars, many workers have stud- an axis in xz plane inclined at an angle with the propaga-
ied, in continuation, the nature of wave propagation in ro- tion direction. Further, because of rotation plasma medium
tating space plasmas. Lehnert (1954a, 1954b), in studying influences two forces, namely, centrifugal force and Cori-
the Alfven waves, found that the Coriolis force plays a dom- olis force. Centrifugal force is being neglected not only for
inant role on low frequency Alfven waves leading to the mathematical simplicity but for studying the effect of Corio-
explanation of solar sunspot cycle. Latter, from the theoreti- lis force in isolation in wave dynamics in space. Centrifugal
cal point of view, linear wave propagation has been studied force is generally neglected (Chandrashekar 1953) in studies
in plasmas to show the interaction of Coriolis force (Uberoi of astroplasma dynamics, and such neglect is being partly
and Das 1970), which led to the useful inference that ro-
justified for many celestial bodies under the influence of
tation, however small might be taken appropriate consid-
slow rotation.
eration otherwise derived results will be erroneous. Again,
The basic equations, governing the plasma dynamics,
Mamun (1994) has shown the different nature of small am-
are the equation of continuity and motion. Thus the equa-
plitude waves generated in high rotating neutron stars or
tions, with respect to a rotating frame of reference following
pulsar. Das and Nag (2007) studied the small amplitude
Uberoi and Das (1970), are written in normalized form as
soliton dynamics in rotating plasma and showed that the
Coriolis force results in explosion or collapse in soliton dy- n
+ .(n v ) = 0, (1)
namics along with the formation of a narrow wave packet t
Astrophys Space Sci
v E q vx vx
+ v (.v ) = q + {v H } (2) M + vx = + vy sin , (10)
t m m
where the subscript = i, e represents respectively for ions vy vy
and electrons. M + vx = (vz cos vx sin ), (11)
(H = H0 +2m /q ) is the totality of ambient magnetic
field H0 and along with the effect of Coriolis force. m is vz vz
M + vx = vy cos (12)
the mass of the -charge moving with velocity v , having
density n , and q is the charge. Because of Te Ti and
for the sake of simplicity we neglect the inertial effect of the Now integrating equations once, with the use of appropri-
electrons and because of which, the motion of electrons is ate boundary conditions at as vx,y,z = 0, = 0,
expressed by the Boltzmann relation as / = 0 and n 1. Equation (9) evaluates vx as
ne = exp() (3) 1
vx = M 1 (13)
n
where ne = n /n0 is the normalized electron density and
= e/kTe is the normalized electrostatic potential, k is The substitution of vx into (10) and (11) gives
the Boltzmannian constant and n0 is the equilibrium plasma
density. All other symbols have their usual meanings. 1 M 2 dn d
The motion of the ions for unidirectional propagation vy = sin 1 3 (14)
n d d
along x-direction is simplified by the following normalized
equations. dv y n
= (n 1) sin vz cos (15)
n nvx d M
+ = 0, (4)
t x Again use of vy in (12) evaluates vz as
vx
+ vx
vx
=
+ vy sin , (5)
1 cot
t x x vz = M cot 1 + nd (16)
n M 0
vy vy
+ vx = (vz cos vx sin ), (6)
t x We, substituting (14) and (16) into (15), obtain the modified
vz vz form of Sagdeev potential equation as
+ vx = vy cos (7)
t x
n2 cos2
where the normalized parameters are defined as n = n i /n0 , A(n) = 2 (n 1) nd
M2 0
vx,y,z = (vi )x,y,z /Cs , Cs = (kTe /mi )1/2 , t = tci , x =
x/, = Cs /ci , ci = eH /mi and = 2/ci . ci , where A(n) = 1
M 2 dn
(17)
and Cs respectively denote the ion gyro-frequency, gyro ra- n3 d
dius and ion acoustic speed. Further we assume unmagne-
which could be simplified to Sagdeev potential equation (or
tized plasma i.e. H0 = 0 with a view to study the sheath
sheath equation) for simple configuration of plasma.
formation under the effect of Coriolis force in isolation.
Multiplying both sides of (17) with A(n) and thereafter,
The above equations are supplemented by Poisson equa-
integrating once again in the limit = 0 to , we get
tion relating the potential to the mobility of the charged
species as
1 2
A(n)
2d 2 2
= ne n (8)
2 x 2 n2 cos2
= A(n) (n 1)
2
nd (18)
where d = ( n0 kT e 1/2
is the Debye length. M2
2 )
0
0e
In order to find the formation of sheath as similar to This is the desired equation for studying nonlinear waves as
earlier derivation of modified Sagdeev potential-like equa- to derive the sheath formation along with different acoustic
tion, we introduce a suitable Galilean transformation as
mode in plasmas. But due to the presence of A(n), which
= x Mt, where M is the velocity of the moving frame.
is a function of plasma constituent, solution of (18), by ana-
By using the transformation, basic (4)(7) are reduced to the
lytic method fails for studying the wave equation, like soli-
following ordinary differential equations
tons and double layers. To get the desired observations that
n nvx too related to astrophysical problems, a crucial approxima-
M + = 0, (9)
t tion of having small amplitude wave with the quasineutrality
Astrophys Space Sci
n = exp() (19)
varying forces, and particles of sizes in the range of (11.4) Bouchoule, A.: Dusty Plasmas: Physics, Chemistry and Technological
nm can sustain equilibrium in sheath. Also the net force vari- Impacts in Plasma Processing. Elsevier, New York (1999)
Chandrashekar, S.S.: Mon. Not. R. Astrophys. Soc. 113, 667 (1953)
ation on a particular dust particle of size a = 1.3 nm depends
Chen, F.F.: Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion.
critically on rotation and Mach number and discussed thor- Plenum, New York (1984)
oughly. Again the net force for different rotation finds to be Das, G.C., Devi, K.: Ind. J. Pure Appl. Phys. 44, 31 (2006)
either positive or negative. In the region where dF n/d is Das, G.C., Kalita, P.: J. Phys., D. Appl. Phys. 37, 702 (2004)
negative, the particles will be suspended or oscillating about Das, G.C., Nag, A.: Phys. Plasmas 14, 083705 (2007)
Das, G.C., Singha, B., Chutia, J.: Phys. Plasmas 6, 3685 (1999)
a stable position. But for the case of dF n/d is positive DeAngeles, U.: Phys. Scr. 45, 1465 (1992)
sheath region will be devoid of such dust particles. Our ob- Devi, K., Sarma, J., Das, G.C., Nag, A., Roychoudhury, R.: Planet.
servations shows that slow rotating celestial body generates Space Sci. 55, 1358 (2007)
comparatively bigger sheath and thus collect large number Gao, Y.T., Tian, B.: Phys. Plasmas 13, 112901 (2006a)
Gao, Y.T., Tian, B.: Phys. Plasmas 13, 120703 (2006b)
of dust particles of smaller sizes, thereby forming a dust
Goertz, C.K., Ip, W.H.: Geophys. Res. Lett. 11, 349 (1984)
atmosphere around the surface of the Moon. Further it has Halekas, J.S., Lin, R.P., Mitchell, D.L.: Geophys. Res. Lett. 30, 2117
been observed that the heavier dust grains will be stable near (2003)
the surface of the solid body whereas finer dust grains will Lehnert, B.: Astrophys. J. 119, 647 (1954a)
be clustering away from the surface. Finally, it can be con- Lehnert, B.: Astrophys. J. 121, 481 (1954b)
cluded that the rotation of the body governs the formation of Lei, M., Zhang, Yu.Y., Ding, W., Liu, J., Wang, X.: Plasma Sci. Tech-
nol. 8, 544 (2006)
nebulons, i.e. cloud of dust, and we are convinced that such Liu, J.Y., Wang, Z.X., Wang, X.: Phys. Plasmas 10, 3032 (2003)
observations might be of interest for further advance stud- Mamun, A.A.: Phys. Plasmas 1, 2096 (1994)
ies in astroplasma problems, as for finding nature of dust Mendis, D.A., Rosenberg, M.: Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 32, 419
atmospheres around Moons surface, interplanetary spaces, (1993)
Mendis, D.A., Hill, J.R., Houpis, H.L.F., Whipple, E.C. Jr.: Astro-
Milky Way, Saturns ring which are yet to be known. phys. J. 249, 787 (1981)
Mitchner, M., Kruger, C.H.: Partially Ionized Gas. Wiley, New York
Acknowledgements Authors gratefully acknowledge the financial (1973)
support from Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) under ISRO- Moslem, W.M., Sabry, R., Abdelsalam, U.M., Kourakis, I., Shukla,
RESPOND Research Program, India (Project No. ISRO/RES/2/352/08- P.K.: New J. Physics 11, 033028 (2009)
09). RC would like to thank Dr. S.K. Baishya, Cotton College, Guwa-
Nitter, T., Havnes, O.: Earth. Moon Planets 56, 7 (1992)
hati for discussions in various stages of the paper. We also thank the
Nitter, T., Havnes, O., Melands, F.: J. Geophys. Res. 103(A4), 6605
Referees for their comments and suggestions in bringing this paper in
(1998)
present form.
Northrop, G.: Phys. Scr. 45, 477 (1992)
Rao, N.N., Shukla, P.K., Yu, M.Y.: Planet. Space Sci. 38, 543 (1990)
Rennilson, J.J., Criswell, D.R.: The Moon 10, 121 (1974)
References Riemann, K.U.: J. Phys., D. Appl. Phys. 24, 493 (1991)
Sagdeev, R.Z.: Rev. Plasma Phys. 4, 23 (1966)
Alterkop, B.: J. Appl. Phys. 95, 1650 (2004) Self, S.A.: Phys. Fluids 6, 1762 (1963)
Baishya, S.K., Das, G.C.: Phys. Plasmas 10, 9 (2003) Selwyn, G.S., Heindenrich, J.E., Haller, K.L.: Appl. Phys. Lett. 57,
Baishya, S.K., Das, G.C., Chutia, J.: PramanaJ. Phys. 55, 861 (2000) 1876 (1990)
Barkan, A., Merlino, R.L., DeAngelo, U.: Phys. Plasmas 2, 3563 Severnyi, A.B., Terez, E.I., Zvereva, A.M.: The Moon 14, 123 (1975)
(1995) Tian, B., Gao, Y.T.: Phys. Plasmas 12, 070703 (2005)
Berg, O.E., Richardson, F.F., Burton, H.: In: Elsasser, H., Fechtig, H. Tonks, L., Langmuir, I.: Phys. Rev. 34, 876 (1929)
(eds.) Interplanetary Dust and Zodical Light, p. 233 (1976) Uberoi, C., Das, G.C.: Plasma Phys. Contr. Fusion 12, 661 (1970)