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Diffusion in microgravity of macroparticles in a dusty plasma under solar radiation
O S Vaulina1, A P Nefedov, O F Petrov
1Institute for High Energy Densities, Russian Academy of Sciences, Izhorskaya 13/19, 127412 Moscow, Russia.
Physical Review Letters
|January 22, 2002
Abstract:
Diffusion of macroparticles, charged by solar radiation in microgravity, is studied by analyzing experimental data obtained on the MIR space station. Temperature, velocity distributions, friction coefficient, and diffusion constants were obtained for bronze particles. A comparison of experimental and theoretical estimates shows that the dynamic behavior of the macroparticles for short observation times can be determined by observing the ambipolar diffusion.