On the stability of two-dimensional modulated electrostatic wavepackets in non-Maxwellian dusty plasma-application in Saturn's magnetosphere

Motivated by observations of localized electrostatic wavepackets by the Voyager 1 and 2 and Cassini missions in Saturn's magnetosphere, we have investigated the evolution of modulated electrostatic wavepackets in a dusty plasma environment. The well-known dust-ion acoustic (DIA) mode was selected to explore the dynamics of multi-dimensional structures, by means of a Davey-Stewartson (DS) model, by taking into account the presence of a highly energetic (suprathermal, kappa-distributed) electron population in combination with heavy (immobile) dust in the background. The modulational (in)stability profile of DIA wavepackets for both negative as well as positive dust charge is investigated. A set of explicit criteria for modulational instability (MI) to occur is obtained. Wavepacket modulation properties in 3D dusty plasmas are shown to differ from e.g. Maxwellian plasmas in 1D. Stronger negative dust concentration results in a narrower instability window in the $K$ (perturbation wavenumber) domain and a suppressed growth rate. In the opposite manner, the instability growth rate increases for higher positive dust concentrations and the instability window gets larger. In a nutshell, negative dust seems to suppress instability while positive dust appears to favor the amplitude modulation instability mechanism.