Related papers: Why do Particle Clouds Generate Electric Charges?
Charged dust clouds play an important role in the evolution of sub-stellar atmospheres through electrical discharges such as lightning events or inter-grain discharges. The consequent plasma activation presents an alternative source of…
It is shown that the grain mass fluctuation, which is due to the grain sputtering by the attracted ions, may be at the root of a new instability in infinite, unmagnetized and homogeneous dusty plasmas. The growth rate is determined in the…
We report a new kind of particle clustering caused purely by gravity, discovered in our simulation of particle-laden turbulence. Clustering in a vertical strip pattern forms when strong gravity acts on heavy particles. This phenomenon is…
One of the most informative techniques of studying magnetic fields in molecular clouds is based on the use of starlight polarization and polarized emission arising from aligned dust. How reliable the interpretation of the polarization maps…
In a landscape with metastable minima, the bubbles will inevitably nucleate. We show that during the bubbles collide, due to the dramatically oscillating of the field at the collision region, the energy deposited in the bubble walls can be…
The spontaneous clustering of a vibrofluidized granular gas is employed to generate directed transport in two different compartmentalized systems: a "granular fountain" in which the transport takes the form of convection rolls, and a…
Observations of flowing granular matter have suggested that same-material tribocharging de- pends on particle size, rendering large grains positive and small ones negative. Models assuming the transfer of trapped electrons can explain this,…
Outflows of pre-main-sequence stars drive shocks into molecular material within 0.01 - 1 pc of the young stars. The shock-heated gas emits infrared, millimeter and submillimeter lines of many species including. Dust grains are important…
It is well known that the form of grain size distribution strongly influences the linear dielectric response of a dusty plasma. In previous results [IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 29, 182 (2001)], it was shown that for a class of size…
Various particle accelerators operate in the space plasmas, filling the Galaxy with high energy particles, primary cosmic rays. Reaching the atmosphere of the earth, these particles originate extensive air showers consisting of millions of…
Collisional growth of tiny particles is a fundamental process governing the growth of cloud droplets and the aggregation of ash particles in volcanic plumes, with direct implications for precipitation formation, cloud lifetime, and ash…
We investigate giant molecular cloud (GMCs) collisions and their ability to induce gravitational instability and thus star formation. This mechanism may be a major driver of star formation activity in galactic disks. We carry out a series…
The evolution of disks around Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) is deeply affected by the YSOs ultraviolet (UV) radiation field especially in the 500-1100 \AA\ spectral range. The two dominant processes are; the photo-dissociation of H_2…
From small seeds falling from trees to asteroids colliding with planets and moons, the impact of projectiles onto granular targets occurs in nature at different scales. In this paper, we investigate open questions in the mechanics of…
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…
We investigate collisions between giant molecular clouds (GMCs) as potential generators of their internal turbulence. Using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of self-gravitating, magnetized, turbulent, GMCs, we compare kinematic and…
The impact-induced energy transfer and dissipation in granular targets without any confining walls are studied by microgravity experiments. A solid projectile impacts into a granular target at low impact speed ($0.045 \leq v_p \leq…
We present a simulation study of the charging of a dust grain immersed in a plasma, considering the effect of electron emission from the grain (thermionic effect). It is shown that the OML theory is no longer reliable when electron emission…
Micron-sized dust grains have been successfully employed as non-perturbative probes to measure variations in plasma conditions on small spatial scales, such as those found in plasma sheaths. The dynamics of the grains can be used to map the…
This article reviews the current status of theoretical modeling of electric dipole radiation from spinning dust grains. The fundamentally simple problem of dust grain rotation appeals to a rich set of concepts of classical and quantum…