Decoupling of dust cloud and embedding plasma for high electron depletion in nanodusty plasmas

In recent years nanoparticles (nps) have become key technological products, e.g. as coatings with tunable optical gap in third generation solar cells, as nanocrystals for photonic applications, and as pharmaceutical nanocarriers. In particle sources, that use reactive, nanodusty plasmas, a high dust density changes the properties of the dusty plasma compared to a dust free plasma considerably, as the electron depletion leads to a reduced number of free electrons. This is called the Havnes effect and was central for the understanding of the famous spokes in Saturns rings. We see here, that it is also important for technological applications. Using self excited dust density waves (DDW) as a diagnostic tool, it is possible for the first time, to completely characterize an argon discharge with embedded amorphous hydrocarbon nps of different size and density. The results show, that electron depletion governs the charge of dust grains, while the size of the particles has only a weak influence. The ion density and electric potential profile are almost independent of both, dust size as well as dust density. This suggests, that the rf generated plasma and the dust cloud coexist and coupling of both is weak.

Coagulation Instability in Protoplanetary Disks: A Novel Mechanism Connecting Collisional Growth and Hydrodynamical Clumping of Dust Particles

We present a new instability driven by a combination of coagulation and radial drift of dust particles. We refer to this instability as “coagulation instability” and regard it as a promising mechanism to concentrate dust particles and assist planetesimal formation in the very early stages of disk evolution. Because of dust-density dependence of collisional coagulation efficiency, dust particles efficiently (inefficiently) grow in a region of positive (negative) dust density perturbations, leading to a small radial variation of dust sizes and as a result radial velocity perturbations. The resultant velocity perturbations lead to dust concentration and amplify dust density perturbations. This positive feedback makes a disk unstable. The growth timescale of coagulation instability is a few tens of orbital periods even when dust-to-gas mass ratio is on the order of 10−3. In a protoplanetary disk, radial drift and coagulation of dust particles tend to result in dust depletion. The present instability locally concentrates dust particles even in such a dust-depleted region. The resulting concentration provides preferable sites for dust–gas instabilities to develop, which leads to further concentration. Dust diffusion and aerodynamical feedback tend to stabilize short-wavelength modes, but do not completely suppress the growth of coagulation instability. Therefore, coagulation instability is expected to play an important role in setting up the next stage for other instabilities, such as streaming instability or secular gravitational instability, to further develop toward planetesimal formation.

Quantification of PV Power and Economic Losses Due to Soiling in Qatar

Soiling losses of photovoltaic (PV) panels due to dust lead to a significant decrease in solar energy yield and result in economic losses; this hence poses critical challenges to the viability of PV in smart grid systems. In this paper, these losses are quantified under Qatar’s harsh environment. This quantification is based on experimental data from long-term measurements of various climatic parameters and the output power of PV panels located in Qatar University’s Solar facility in Doha, Qatar, using a customized measurement and monitoring setup. A data processing algorithm was deliberately developed and applied, which aimed to correlate output power to ambient dust density in the vicinity of PV panels. It was found that, without cleaning, soiling reduced the output power by 43% after six months of exposure to an average ambient dust density of 0.7 mg/m3. The power and economic loss that would result from this power reduction for Qatar’s ongoing solar PV projects has also been estimated. For example, for the Al-Kharasaah project power plant, similar soiling loss would result in about a 10% power decrease after six months for typical ranges of dust density in Qatar’s environment; this, in turn, would result in an 11,000 QAR/h financial loss. This would pose a pressing need to mitigate soiling effects in PV power plants.

Interplanetary dust observations with the Solar Orbiter RPW instrument: a first year of data.

<p>Impacts of dust grains on spacecraft are known to produce typical impulsive signals in the voltage waveform recorded at the terminals of electric antennas. Such signals are, as could be expected, routinely detected by the radio and plasma waves (RPW) instrument aboard Solar Orbiter, therefore providing in-situ measurements of the interplanetary dust density along the spacecraft trajectory.<br><br>We present a statistical analysis of the first year and half of dust impact data recorded by Solar Orbiter RPW between 1 AU and 0.5 AU. We discuss the results in terms of constraints that can be put on beta-meteoroids and interstellar dust fluxes, and compare them to results obtained by STEREO at 1 AU and more recently by Parker Solar Probe at 0.5 AU.</p>

On the non-axisymmetric fragmentation of rings generated by the Secular Gravitational Instability

Ringed structures have been observed in a variety of protoplanetary discs. Among the processes that might be able to generate such features, the Secular Gravitational Instability (SGI) is a possible candidate. It has also been proposed that the SGI might lead to the formation of planetesimals during the non-linear phase of the instability. In this context, we employ two-fluid hydrodynamical simulations with self-gravity to study the non-axisymmetric, non-linear evolution of ringed perturbations that grow under the action of the SGI. We find that the non-linear evolution outcome of the SGI depends mainly on the initial linear growth rate. For SGI growth rates smaller than typically σ ≳ 10−4 − 10−5Ω, dissipation resulting from dust feedback introduces a m = 1 spiral wave in the gas, even for Toomre gas stability parameters Qg > 2 for which non-axisymmetric instabilities appear in a purely gaseous disc. This one-armed spiral subsequently traps dust particles until a dust-to-gas ratio ε ∼ 1 is achieved. For higher linear growth rates, the dust ring is found to undergo gravitational collapse until the bump in the surface density profile becomes strong enough to trigger the formation of dusty vortices through the Rossby Wave Instability (RWI). Enhancements in dust density resulting from this process are found to scale with the linear growth rate, and can be such that the dust density is higher than the Roche density, leading to the formation of bound clumps. Fragmentation of axisymmetric rings produced by the SGI might therefore appear as a possible process for the formation of planetesimals.

Simulations of ion–dust streaming instability in a highly collisional plasma

The excitation of low frequency dust acoustic (or dust density) waves in a dusty plasma can be driven by the flow of ions relative to dust. We consider the nonlinear development of the ion–dust streaming instability in a highly collisional plasma, where the ion and dust collision frequencies are a significant fraction of their corresponding plasma frequencies. This collisional parameter regime may be relevant to dusty plasma experiments under microgravity or ground-based conditions with high gas pressure. One-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are presented, which take into account collisions of ions and dust with neutrals, and a background electric field that drives the ion flow. Ion flow speeds of the order of a few times thermal are considered. Waveforms of the dust density are found to have broad troughs and sharp crests in the nonlinear phase. The results are compared with the nonlinear development of the ion–dust streaming instability in a plasma with low collisionality.