Influence of a transverse magnetic field on wakefield oscillations around a charged dust grain in complex plasma

Abstract

In the presence of ion streaming, the potential around dust particles immersed in plasma becomes anisotropic. In this scenario, the repulsive Debye–Hückel potential is superimposed with an attractive wake potential. This work presents an analytical study of the complex behavior of such a wake potential in the presence of a magnetic field (oriented transversely to the ion flow) and ion-neutral collisions using linear response formalism, both in subsonic and supersonic regimes. The amplitude and periodicity of this potential are found to be controlled by the interplay among ion streaming velocity, ion cyclotron frequency, and ion-neutral collision frequency. Due to the tunable nature of this potential, it is possible to control the crystal formation, phase transitions, and transport properties of dusty plasma by adjusting the external magnetic field. The study also reveals that the wake potential almost disappears in a collision-dominant regime.