Perpendicular diffusion of a dilute beam of charged dust particles in a strongly coupled dusty plasma

The diffusion of projectiles drifting through a target of strongly coupled dusty plasma is investigated in a simulation. A projectile’s drift is driven by a constant force F. We characterize the random walk of the projectiles in the direction perpendicular to their drift. The perpendicular diffusion coefficient Dp? is obtained from the simulation data. The force dependence of Dp? is found to be a power law in a high force regime, but a constant at low forces. A mean kinetic energy Wp for perpendicular motion is also obtained. The diffusion coefficient is found to increase with Wp with a linear trend at higher energies, but an exponential trend at lower energies. VC 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4885353]