Modeling of self-excited dust vortices in complex plasmas under microgravity

A two-dimensional hydrodynamic model for a dusty argon plasma in which the plasma and dust parameters are solved self-consistently has been supplemented with a separate dust particle tracing module to study the behavior of dust vortices. These coherent vortices appear in plasma crystal experiments performed under microgravity conditions. The nonconservative total force exerted by the discharge on the dust particles is responsible for the generation of the vortices. The contribution of the thermophoretic force driven by the gas temperature gradient plays an insignificant role in the generation of the vortices, even when the gas heating via the dust particles is taken into account. The forces related to the electric field, including the ion drag force, are dominant.