Effects of two-temperature electrons, external oblique magnetic field, concentration of charged dust grains and higher-order nonlinearity on dust ion-acoustic solitary waves in Saturn's E-ring

The purpose of the present work is to investigate some nonlinear properties of the dust ion-acoustic (DIA) solitary waves in a four-component hot-magnetized dusty plasma consisting of charged dust grains, positively charged ions and two-temperature isothermal electrons. Applying a reductive perturbation theory, a nonlinear Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation for the first-order perturbed potential and a linear inhomogeneous KdV-type equation for the second-order perturbed potentials are derived. Stationary solutions of these coupled equations are obtained using a renormalization method. A method based on energy consideration is used to obtain a condition for stable solitons. The effects of two different types of isothermal electrons, external oblique magnetic field, concentration of negatively (positively) charged dust grains and higher-order nonlinearity on the nature of the DIA solitary waves are discussed. The numerical results are applied to Saturn's E-ring.     

Laboratory analogy of crystalline enstatite grain formation in plasma field

Crystalline enstatite (MgSiO₃) grains were produced by the simultaneous evaporation of SiO grains and Mg vapor in a plasma field. The MgSiO₃ grains were spherical or needlelike. The necessity of a plasma field in astromineralogy is suggested in the present study.     

Excitation of Electromagnetic Flute Modes in the Process of Interaction of Plasma Flow with Inhomogeneous Magnetic Field

Laboratory experiments on the interaction of a plasma flow, produced by laser ablation of a solid target with the inhomogeneous magnetic field from the Zebra pulsed power generator demonstrated the presence of strong wave activity in the region of the flow deceleration. The deceleration of the plasma flow can be interpreted as the appearance of a gravity-like force. The drift due to this force can lead to the excitation of flute modes. In this paper a linear dispersion equation for the excitation of electromagnetic flute-type modes with plasma and magnetic field parameters, corresponding to the ongoing experiments is examined. Results indicate that the wavelength of the excited flute modes strongly depends on the strength of the external magnetic field. For magnetic field strengths ∼0.1 MG the excited wavelengths are larger than the width of the laser ablated plasma plume and cannot be observed during the experiment. But for magnetic field strengths ∼1 MG the excited wavelengths are much smaller and can then be detected.     

On the peak level of tearing instability in an ion-scale current sheet: The effects of ion temperature anisotropy

We have systematically surveyed the effects of the ion temperature anisotropy on the peak reconnected flux level of the tearing instability excited in a thick current sheet (its half-thickness D equal to the ion inertial length). A series of two- and three-dimensional (2-D and 3-D) simulations have been performed for a magnetotail-like situation, where the ion perpendicular temperature is fixed to balance the magnetic pressure of the lobe while the ion parallel temperature can be varied to give rise to the temperature anisotropy α_i=T_i,perp/T_i,para. Focusing on the behavior of the fastest growing mode (wavelength λ=12D), the results are summarized as follows: (1) The peak levels are larger when the initial α_i is larger and lobe reconnection is obtained only when α_i>1.5. (2) 3-D effects do speed-up the reconnection process but do not change the peak level substantially. (3) The time-scale of gas pressure build-up at the center of magnetic islands relative to the time-scale of reconnected flux growth is identified to be the key issue in determining the peak level. Based on these results for the fastest growing mode with λ=12D, discussion is given on the larger-scale development, that is, what happens when longer wavelength modes are allowed to develop.