Kinetic temperature of dust particle motion in gas-discharge plasma.

A system of equations describing motion of dust particles in gas discharge plasma is formulated. This system is developed for a monolayer of dust particles with an account of dust particle charge fluctuations and features of the discharge near-electrode layer. Molecular dynamics simulation of the dust particles system is performed. A mechanism of dust particle average kinetic energy increase is suggested on the basis of theoretical analysis of the simulation results. It is shown that heating of dust particles' vertical motion is initiated by forced oscillations caused by the dust particles' charge fluctuations. The process of energy transfer from vertical to horizontal motion is based on the phenomenon of the parametric resonance. The combination of parametric and forced resonances explains the abnormally high values of the dust particles' kinetic energy. Estimates of frequency, amplitude, and kinetic energy of dust particles are close to the experimental values.