THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES OF MULTICOMPONENT DUSTY PLASMA

Abstract

The aim of the study is to construct a self-consistent chemical model of dusty plasma,
consisting of electrons, protons, neutral atoms and dust particles. An expression for the Helmholtz free
energy is proposed to take into account the charge of dust particles and consist of ideal and excess con-
tributions. The excess part of the free energy is calculated in the framework of a self-consistent chemical
model, which is based on the generalized Boltzmann-Poisson equation obtained from the chain of
Bogolyubov equations for equilibrium distribution functions in the pair correlation approximation. The
Coulomb potential is used for the micropotentials of the interaction of electrons and protons, and they
assume to interact with atoms as well as atomswith one another via the well-known Mott potentials. It is
essential that dust particles have a finite size, which must be taken into account in the potential of their
interaction with each other, as well as with protons and electrons of the surrounding plasma. It has been
demonstrated that the Helmholtz free energy of the multicomponent medium under consideration is a
function of the concentrations of free electrons and protons, and its subsequent minimization provides
the corresponding equilibrium values. This allows a detailed study of the ionization equilibrium in a
plasma medium and, at the same time, determinationof the charge of dust particles. In the framework of
the pair correlation approximation, the correlation functions of the system become known, which in-
clude the radial distribution functions and static structural factors, whose behavior can be revealed in a
wide range of plasma parameters. Knowledge of the correlation functions of the system enables one, in
turn, to calculate the thermodynamic characteristics of a multicomponent dusty plasma, which is done,
in particular, for the correlation energy. The data obtained on the caloric equation of state will allow predicting new effects in the propagation of dust acoustic waves associated with the recharging of dust
particles in a plasma due to changing ionization equilibrium.