Such plasmas are of interest as a non-Hamiltonian system of interacting particles and as a means to study generic fundamental physics of self-organization, pattern formation, phase transitions, and scaling.
[6] Field electron emission, which tends to reduce the negative potential, can be important due to the small size of the particles.
Interest in the dynamics of charged dust in plasmas was amplified by the detection of spokes in the rings of Saturn.
[3]: 77 The thermophoretic force is the force that arises from the net temperature gradient that may be present in a plasma, and the subsequent pressure imbalance; causing more net momentum to be imparted from collisions from a specific direction.
[3]: 80 Then depending in the size of the particle, there are four categories: Dusty plasmas are often studied in laboratory setups.
The dust particles can be grown inside the plasma, or microparticles can be inserted.
Their movement is slow enough to be able to be observed with ordinary cameras, and the kinetics of the system can be studied.
However, for micrometer-sized particles, gravity is a dominant force that disturbs the system.
Thus, experiments are sometimes performed under microgravity conditions during parabolic flights or on board a space station.
However, this presents challenges related to dust formation inside the vacuum chamber, causing impurities and affecting performance.
In some cases, dust (powders) can play a positive role, such as in-situ wall conditioning, suppression of edge-localized modes, and reduction of heat fluxes to the divertor.