Instability of ion flows in bounded dusty plasma systems

The effect of longitudinal boundaries on electrostatic instabilities driven by an ion beam in a dusty plasma is considered. In analogy with instabilities in electron-ion plasma diodes, in this case both the low-frequency ion-space-charge waves and ion-dust waves can be unstable. The growth rates and ion current thresholds are estimated. The present investigation should help to design a large scale dusty plasma device to study these low-frequency analogs of instabilities in bounded beam-plasma systems.