The high-density regime of dusty plasma: Coulomb plasma

It is shown that the dust density regimes in dusty plasma are characterized by two complementary screening processes, (a) the low dust density regime where the Debye screening is the dominant process and (b) the high dust density regime where the Coulomb screening is the dominant process. The Debye regime is characterized by a state where all dust particles carry an equal and constant charge. The high-density regime or the Coulomb plasma regime is characterized by (a) Coulomb screening where the dust charge depends on the spatial location and is screened by other dust particles in the vicinity by charge reduction, (b) quark like asymptotic freedom where dust particles, which on an average carry minimal electric charge (q tends to 0), are asymptotically free, (c) uniform dust charge density and plasma potential, (d) dust charge neutralization by a uniform background of hot ions. Thus, the Coulomb plasma is essentially a one-component plasma (OCP) with screening as opposed to electron plasma which is OCP without screening. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations verify these properties. The MD simulations are performed, using a recently developed Hamiltonian formalism, to study the dynamics of Yukawa particles carrying variable electric charge. A hydrodynamic model for describing the collective properties of Coulomb plasma and its characteristic acoustic mode called the Coulomb acoustic wave is given.