Abstract
We discuss the microphysical processes that trigger phase transitions in a dusty plasma not in thermodynamic equilibrium and subject to ion streaming. For pressures below the critical pressure Pc for condensation, the grains acquire a large random kinetic energy and form a weakly coupled fluid. If pressure is increased to greater than Pc, the grains lose their kinetic energy and reach a strongly coupled crystalline state. The dust heating in the fluid phase is due to an ion-dust two-stream instability, which is stabilized at P > Pc by the combined effect of ion-neutral and dust-neutral collisions. When the pressure is decreased from the crystalline state to below the critical pressure Pm for melting, transverse phonons are destabilized by ion streaming, which destroys the short range ordering of the dust grains and triggers melting. It is found that Pm < Pc. For Pm < P < Pc mixed phase states can exist. Although the system is not in thermodynamic equilibrium, the process resembles closely to a first order phase transition.
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Ganguli, G., Joyce, G., Lampe, M. (2005). Phase Transition in Dusty Plasmas. In: Burton, W., et al. Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Plasmas. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 321. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3109-2_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3109-2_13
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