New mechanism of dust growth and gravitation-like instabilities in astrophysical plasmas

¹ Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK
² University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ, Scotland, UK
³ General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Vavilova Str. 38, Moscow, Russia
⁴ Moscow Physical Technical Institute, Moscow, Russia

Corresponding author: R. Bingham, R.Bingham@rl.ac.uk

Received: 19 January 2001
Accepted: 3 August 2001

Abstract

Dust growth by agglomeration due to a new mechanism of dust attraction is shown to compete in space plasmas with the standard accretion mechanism by neutral particles. We demonstrate that dust growth by accretion of neutrals and plasma particles is aided by a pressure force due to a shadowing effect first proposed (Bingham & Tsytovich [CITE]) to explain rapid growth of dust in laboratory discharges. Consequences of this new force promoting dust growth by agglomeration in astrophysics are discussed including the role of a new gravitational-like instability which produces clumping enhancing the rate of gravitational collapse.