Magnetic Field Induced Ion Trapping Around Dust Particle in Plasma

TL;DR

This study explores how uniform magnetic fields influence ion trajectories around dust particles in plasma, revealing conditions under which ions become trapped, with implications for dusty plasma behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a modified Velocity Verlet algorithm for simulating ion-dust interactions in strong magnetic fields and identifies specific magnetic field strengths causing ion trapping.

Findings

Ion trapping occurs at specific magnetic field strengths.

Trapping conditions depend on plasma parameters and magnetic field intensity.

Results applicable to argon and helium plasma experiments.

Abstract

This paper investigates the binary collision between an ion and a charged dust particle in the plasma in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. The trajectories of ions are calculated using the modified Velocity Verlet algorithm designed for a reliable simulation of the charged particle dynamics in arbitrarily strong static homogeneous external magnetic fields. We consider the coupling parameter values characteristic for dusty plasma experiments and the external magnetic field with $B\leq 1~{\rm T}$. It has been revealed that at some magnetic field values, the ions are trapped around the charged dust particle. The magnetic field strength values in which the ion becomes trapped around the dust particle have been obtained for typical argon and helium gas discharge plasma parameters.