Plarw~. Sprcw Sci.. Vol. 43, No. 9. pp.

1095--I loo, 1995

Pergamon
Copyright ‘_ 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd
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0032-0633(95)0002&3

Small amplitude ion acoustic double layers in dusty plasmas

0. P. Sah

Department of Physics, Birjhora Mahavidylaya, Pancha-Swahid Path, Bongaigaon 783 380, Assam. India

Received 27 May 1994: revised 22 November 1994: accepted 23 January 1995

of ion acoustic waves in unmagnetized dusty plasma in

Abstract. The existence of small aptitude ion acoustic
which a spatial inhomogeneity is created by a distribution
double layers,in a plasma consisting of cold ions, a hot
of immobile dust particles. On the other hand low fre-
population of eltstrbfis dust
quency ES waves like ion cyclotron and ion acoustic waves
(D’Angelo, 1990) have been shown to exist in a mag-
netized dusty plasma. Recently Shukla and Silin (1992)
have shown the existence of novel dust acoustic waves in
layers can occur.
the presence of the static charged dust grains in relevance
to low frequency noises in the F-ring of Saturn. The exis-
tence of Alfven waves as well as a magnetosonic mode, in
1. Introduction magnetized dusty plasma has been studied by Rao ( 1993).
It was shown that magnetosonic wave-plateau shocks
Recently there has been increasing interest in studying the driven by either the upper hybrid ot the O-mode electro-
properties of linear and nonlinear electrostatic (ES) and magnetic waves can also exist in such a plasma.
electromagnetic (EM) modes propagating through dusty Studies of nonlinear structures such as solitons and
plasma because of their importance in interpreting the double layer (DL) in dusty plasma have also drawn atten-
low frequency ES as well as EM noises in space and tion in recent years. Rao et al. (1990) reported the exis-
astrophysical plasmas. Such studies have also been gain- tence of novel dust acoustic waves in the presence of
ing momentum due to the increased observations of dusty mobile charged dust fluid, when the electron and ion fluids
plasmas in space environments such as asteroid zones, were Boltzmann distributed in a uniform plasma. They
planetary rings. cometry tails, some stages of the early showed that such waves can propagate nonlinearly in the
solar nebula, magnetosphere and the lower part of the form of a supersonic soliton with either positive or nega-
Earth’s ionosphere (Whipple et al., 1985; de Angelis et tive ES potential. On the other hand Bharuthram and
ul.. 1988 ; Goertz. 1989 ; de Angelis. 1992) and also due Shukla (I 992a,b) have examined the existence of large
to their presence in various laboratories (Selwyn, 1989: amplitude ion acoustic solitons as well as dust acoustic
Sheehan et al., 1990; Carlile et al., 1991). DLs in unmagnetized dusty plasmas.
Although a large amount of literature on dusty plasmas In this paper we present a simple theoretical model to
has focused attention on dust grain from a particle dynam- investigate the formation of small amplitude ion acoustic
ics point of view, consideration of collective effects is also DLs in an unmagnetized dusty plasma. The low frequency
of great interest (Verheest. 1967; de Angelis et al., 1988 ; behaviour of a dusty plasma is very similar to that of
Rao ef ul., 1990; D-Angelo, 1990; Shukla and Silin, 1992; a plasma consisting of negative ions (Bharuthtam and
Verheest, 1993). Studies of collective effects involve wave Shukla, 1992a). For the case in which the wavelength and
motions, instabilities leading to turbulence, formation of the inter-particle distances are much larger than the grain
coherent structures, etc. Processes such as radial mass size, the dust grains can be treated as negatively charged
transport and angular momentum redistribution in plan- point masses like negative ions. However, here the ratio
etary ring systems seem to be governed by collective pro- of charge to mass of a dust particle may have any value.
cesses such as wave instabilities in a dusty plasma. Studies Our plasma model consists of mobile negatively char-
of collective oscillations in multispecies unmagnetized ged dust particles (described by the fluid equations). cold
dusty plasma on the basis of a dispersion relation were first ions (described by the fluid equations) and a hot popu-
presented by Verheest (1967) and James and Vermuelen lation of electrons. This model is thus similar to a study
( 1968). de Angelis et al. ( 1988) investigated the properties of ion acoustic solitons in a dusty plasma where the
1096 0. P. Sah : Small amplitude ion acoustic double layers in dusty plasmas

dynamics of both the ions and dust particles are con-

sidered (Bharuthram and Shukla, 1992a). In the following (7)
section we present the basic equations and obtain the DL
solution assuming that the hot electrons are isothermal where
and obey the Boltzmann distribution. In Section 3, effects
of trapped electrons on the formation of ion acoustic DL
zd = lldOand b = !!!!
is discussed and finally Section 4 contains a brief summary
% i?l,
and conclusions of our results.
In deriving equations (6) and (7) we used the boundary
conditions, namely n, + I : tzd + q,; u,, ud + 0 and 4 + 0
at ~7-+ ~1. Also in the above equations we normalized
2. Basic equations particle densities by the total equilibrium density n, ; vel-
ocities by the ion acoustic speed C, = (TJm,)‘.” and the
We consider a three-component unmagnetized plasma potential, space and time coordinates by (TJr),
composed of cold ions and mobile dust particles with a &, = (T,/4nrt,e’)’ ’ and w,,’ = (4nn,e’/nz,)~ ’ ‘, respec-
hot population of electrons. For the propagation of 1D tively. The charge neutrality condition (5) in the nor-
low frequency ion acoustic waves, the dynamics of the malized form reduced to
ions and dust particles are governed by the following
equations : 1 =x,+N, (8)
A

where
2 +&(np,) = 0
a, = n,,/tt,; Nd = C(dZd.

Substituting now the normalized electron density n, from

equation (3) and Izi, nd, respectively from equations (6)
and (7) into equation (4) and then integrating with the
where, for ionsj = i, Q = --e. and for dust particlesj = d, boundary conditions, namely @/&I = V(4) = 0 at r$ = 0
Q = &e. The dust particles considered here are negatively we obtained the “Energy Law”
charged,
Assuming that the thermal velocity of hot electrons is
much greater than the phase velocity of ion acoustic (9)
waves, the number density of the hot electrons can be
given by the Boltzmann relation where V(4) is the classical potential expressed in powers
of4as
4
n, = rt,(,exp
(1
-
T,
(3)

The system of equations is closed with the help of Pois- with

son’s equation

(1 la)

The charge neutrality condition at equilibrium requires

that (lib)

%I = II,,, + z,n,, = 12{,. (5)

In the above equations n, (ttJ, m, (q) and L(,(zld) are the 5 cc,z: 5
B3 +--__-- (llc)
number density, the mass and the fluid velocity of the 2 83~6 2M6
ions (dust particles), respectively; e, $, s and f are the
electronic charge, electrostatic potential, space and time The nonlinear dispersion relation is now obtained by put-
coordinates, respectively. ting the condition - V(4) = 0 at 4 = Y in equation (lo),
We now look for a weak DL solution in a stationary where ‘I! is the amplitude of the DL. The result is
frame q = .Y- Mt, r = t, where M is the velocity of the
moving frame. Using this transformation in equations (1) B, = -;B~Y-+B~Y~. (13)
and (2), one can obtain the normalized ion and dust
particle densities, respectively, as Again to get the DL solution we imposed another bound-
ary condition, namely -1?If(4)/c?4 = 0 at 4 = Y in equa-
tion (10) and find

B, = -&Y-BiY2. (13)
and Solving equations ( 12) and (13) we get
0. P. Sah : Small amplitude ion acoustic double layers in dusty plasmas

5, =;B,‘I”’ (14a) (a)

and

Bz = -;B,Y. (14b)

Inserting the values of B, and B, in equation (10) and

then integrating equation (9) with equation (10) we obtain

d,=;(l-tanhkrJ) (15)

wrhere

li = J(B,./~)Y.
Equation (15) represents a DL provided that B, > 0. We
(b)
shall now calculate the velocity of this DL. For this we
use equations (14a) and (14b) and obtain
0

-V(9)

[I -+ y))(l- ;) forY,cc, < 1. (16)

The linear form of the velocity is Fig. 1. (a) A qualitative plot of the electrical potential I$(.Y)of a
monotonic compressive double layer as a function of .Y.(b) The
corresponding classical potential V(b) as a function of d,
(17)

Inserting the linear value of M in equations (1 lb) and

( I Ic), B, and B, can be rewritten as B2 = h,( 1 -7a,) (1923)

B, = kc&(
1- 15X,‘). ( IYb)

It is observed from the above equations that B, > 0 if

and CI, < 0.258 and B, > ( < )0 if x, < ( > )0.33. Hence in this
case only a rarefactive DL can exist. The condition
~1,< 0.258 implies that for Z, = 1000, the formation of a
DL requires ndo/nlCl3 0.000742. In the limit Q, = 0. the
coefficient B3 becomes negative (equation (19b)) and the
It may be recalled that the solution given by equation DL solution is destroyed. This result is consistent with the
(15) can exist only for positive values of B3 given by works of Goswami and Bujarbarua (1985) in which they
equation ( 18b). Again the sign of the potential 4 depends showed that ion acoustic DL solutions cannot exist in a
strictly on the sign of B2 given by equation (18a). AS is single Maxwellian-electron plasma.
evident from equation (14b), a compressive DL (Fig. 1)
may possibly be constructed from the negative values of Case II
BL. Similarly from equations (14a) and (14b) one can We now take (ZJ6) = 1. Thus from equations (18a)
obtain a rarefactive DL (Fig. 2) solution like and (18b) we get

(/I = - ‘?!(I -tanhkq)

from the positive values of B2. In order to examine the

existence and nature of the DL we consider the following
cases for simplicity :
It is found from equations (20a) and (20b) that B, > 0
Cmse I for x, < 0.4104 and Ez > (c)O for s(, < (>) 0.732. Hence
At first we assume (NdZd/?i) CC1. In such a situation B: again only a rarefactive DL can be constructed in the
and B, reduce to above type of plasma.
1098 0. P. Sah : Small amplitude ion acoustic double layers in dusty plasmas

(a) Table 1.

0 Z,ib r:
L

0.000 I 0.258
0.001 0.258
0.01 0.261
0.1 0.286
I 0.410
IO 0.237
100 0.208
1000 0.205
10.000 0.205

(b)
a new method for constructing a smooth distribution for
-y I the trapped particles. The validity of such a distribution
function for a magnetized plasma is discussed by Bujar-
barua and Yu (1982). The number density of the non-
isothermal electrons in normalized form is obtained by
taking the first moment of Schamel’s distribution func-
‘\ tion. The result is
I 49
I
‘..’ 1

Fig. 2. (a) A qualitative plot of the electrical potential 4(-u) of a Here

monotonic rarefactive double layer as a function of X. (b) The
corresponding classical potential V(4) as a function of 4 Z(s) = e’[l -erf (Js)]

Case III
Finally we take NdZd/S >> 1. Hence the coefficients
and 3, reduce to
B2
W(r) = em”
sY

0
dt e” is the Dawson integral

erf(x) = ‘” ’ dt Ed ” is the error function

Bz = &[l +3cr,/(l -a,,] (214
J n s0
and /3 = TJT,,is known as the trapping parameter, where
B3 = &[l- 15cYf/(l -a,)‘]. (2lb)
T,, and T,, are the temperature of free and hot electrons,
Here it is found that B3 > 0 for CY,d 0.205 and B2 > (< )0 respectively. Here 1 = 1 and 0 respectively correspond to
for IX,f ( >) 1, Thus in this situation also only a rare- Maxwellian and flat-topped distribution and fi < 0 cor-
factive DL is supported by the dusty plasma under con- responds to a hole in the trapped region representing a
sideration. vortex type distribution. For 4 << 1 equation (22) can be
It appears from the above analysis (Cases I-III) that expanded as
for a fixed value of (Z,/S) there is an upper limiting value
1: of IX, beyond which no DL solutions are possible. 123)
Numerical analysis of B3 shows that this upper limit of OL,
increases as the ratio (Z,/b) increases, reaches a maximum
Inserting now equations (3), (7) and (23) in Poisson’s
value ( = 0.4104) at ZJS = 1 and decreases again as (Z,/S)
equation and integrating with the boundary conditions
increases further. Table 1 depicts such upper limiting
V(4) = a4jaq = 0 at 4 = 0 we again get the “Energy
values of z, = a: against some arbitrarily chosen values
Law”
of (Z,/&.

3. Effect of trapped electrons

We now consider the case where some low energy elec-

trons of the hot component are trapped in the potential
structure of the nonlinear wave. In such a situation the
Boltzmann distribution law for the hot electron popu- 4(1 -P)a,
B; = B, ; B’, = - and B> = B,
lation is no longer applicable. Schamel (1973) presented 3Jn
0. P. Sah : Small amplitude ion acoustic double layers in dusty plasmas lO9Y

The coefficients B’, and B> can be expressed in terms of shows that both rarefactive and compressive types of DL
R; by using the DL conditions V($) = ? V( c#J)/f3#l
= 0 at can exist depending upon the temperature distribution of
th = Y’. The results are the hot electrons. We show that rarefactive DLs can be
B; =;B;Y (35, constructed if the hot electrons are isothermal and obey
the Boltzmann distribution law. On the other hand non-
;md isothermality in the electron distributions lead to the for-
By>= --;B:,,‘Y. mation of compressive DLs. It appears that the existence
(26)
of both types of DLs require some upper threshold values
Inserting equations (25) and (26) in equation (34) and of the equilibrium electrons to ion densities ratio
integrating we get the DL solution (a; = U&E,,,) beyond which DL solutions are destroyed.
ly Further. \ve note that DL solutions are possible only in
(1, = $- ( I - tanh h-‘r/)2 (27) the presence of negatively charged dust particles. No such
DL can be formed if the dust particles a~-e positiveI\
where charged.
In conclusion we can say that the plasma model con-
sidered in this paper may exist in both laboratory and
space environments and can support compressive as well
as rarefactive DLs. Such DLs may act as a possible accel-
The velocity of the DL in this case is obtained as
erator of dust particles such as dust-.jets observed in the
environment of comet Halley (Mazets (I/ (I/.. 19X6) if such
jets constitute charged particle\.

Here again equation (27) represents a DL provided k’ is .4~~l\no~c~/~,r~yr~~1~~/i~.s.

The author would llkr to thank Professor
real. This is satisfied by B; > 0 for Y > 0 (compressive R. Bharuthram of University of Durban Westville and the other
DL solution) and by BI, < 0 for Y < 0 (rarefactive DL referee for helpful suggestions and comments.
solution). However, for Y < 0. the coefficient B’, (equa-
tlon (36)) and hence the Sagdeev potential V(d) (equation
(24)) becomes complex. Thus. a rarefactive DL solution
is not possible for nonisothermal hot electrons. Now. it is References
found that Bj = B, remain positive for Cases I, III in the
previous section, as long as 2, < 0.33, x, < 0.732 and Angelis, II. de, The physics of dusly plasmas. /‘/~~,vic,tr.S(,r;p/c~
3, < I, respectively. Hence in all these cases only com- 45, 465. 199’.
pressive DL solutions are possible with nonisothermal Angelis, U. de, Formisano, V. and Giordano, M., Ion plasma
wa\es in dusty plasmas ; Halley’s comet. J. Plrlsr~r~/P/I,I,.s.40,
electrons.
399. 1988.
It is worth mentioning here that if the dust particles
Bharuthram, R. and Shukla, P. K., Large amplitude ion acoustic
were positively charged, in such a situation Zd < 0 and solitons in a dusty plasma. Plunr~. Sprrcc~Sci. 40, Y73, 1992a.
x, > I, In the light of this fact we analysed equations (l8a) Bharuthram, R. and Shukla, P. K., Large amplitude double layers
and (18b) under Cases I-111 and found that both B, and in dusty plasmas. Phrt. Sptrw .%i. 40. 465. 19YZb.
B, remain always negative. Hence no DL solutions can Bujarbarua, S. and Yu, M. Y., Trapped particle induced ion
exist with either isothermal or nonisothermal hot electrons solitary wa\‘es in a magnetized plasma. Ph~~.\ir~.\Fl~itlr 25.
u hen the dust particles are positively charged. The effects 884. 1982.
Carlile, R. N., Geha, S., O’Hanlon, J. F. and Stewart, J. C.,
of dust particles on the amplitude (Y) of the DL can be
Electrostatic trapping of contamination particles in ;I process
seen from equations (16) (case of isothermal electrons) plasma environments. ,4pp/. P/I,I,.\. Lrtt. 59, I 167. IYYI.
and (28) (case ofnonisothermal electrons). It is observed D’Angelo, N., Low frequency electrostatic W~IVCX in dusty pIa>-
from equation ( 16) that for given values of M and (Z,jS) mas. Plur~c~r.Spu(x, .%i. 38, I 143. 1990.
the magnitude of DL amplitude (IYI) decreases with Goertz, C. K., Dusty plasmas in the x)lar 5yGem. KC>/-.~;co~J/~~I~~.
increasing 2,. Similarly. for given values of M and c(, the 27, 171. 1989.
\,alues of IYl increase with increasing (Zd/b). On the other Goswami. K. S. and Bujarbarua, S., Theory ofwenk eon acoustic
h;md equation (28) shows that the nature of variation of double layers. P/I,I..s. Lrri. IOSA. 149. 19x5.
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1. PIIJX 46, X55, 1968.
from the previous case. Mazets, E. P.. Aptekar, R. L., Golenetskii, S. \‘., Gurgan, Yu.
A., Dyachkov, A. V.. Ilyinski, V. N., Panov, V. N., Petrov. G.
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4. Summary and conclusions N. G., Shapiro, V. D. and Shevchenko, V. 1. Comet Halley
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dusty plasmas. Plunrt. Spuw 53. 41, 21 26. iYY3.
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electrons. The nonlinear soliton solution for such a wave Schamel. H., A modified Korteweg--de Vries equation for ion
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b! Bharuthram and Shukla (1992a). Our investigation 177. lY7.x
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