On the wake structure in streaming complex plasma

Abstract

The theoretical description of complex (dusty) plasmas requires multiscale concepts that adequately incorporate the correlated interplay of streaming electrons and ions, neutrals and dust grains. Knowing the effective dust–dust interaction, the multiscale problem can be effectively reduced to a one-component plasma model of the dust subsystem. The goal of this paper is a systematic evaluation of the electrostatic potential distribution around a dust grain in the presence of a streaming plasma environment by means of two complementary approaches: (i) a high-precision computation of the dynamically screened Coulomb potential from the dynamic dielectric function and (ii) full 3D particle-in-cell simulations, which self-consistently include dynamical grain charging and nonlinear effects. The range of applicability of these two approaches is addressed.