PARALLEL PLATE CAPACITOR SIMULATION AND TRANSVERSE OSCILLATION OF VERTICAL DUSTY PLASMA CHAINS IN A GLASS BOX

Dust particles in plasma can arrange themselves into a vertical con guration
when placed inside a glass box. What really occurs in the glass box is still unknown
and is di cult to nd out by direct methods of measurement. In this thesis, the
dust chains are investigated through probe oscillations and a Matlab simulation
that uses a parallel plate capacitor to model an electric eld. Parameters of the
plasma and dispersion relations for the transverse oscillation are extracted from
the chain's motion. For both longitudinal and transverse oscillatory motion, the
simulation is used to nd the charge on all the dust in the chains and to simulate
the chain's motion. The plasma parameter values are expected within experimental
error. The dispersion relations show that more than one wave motion
propagates through the chain. The charge found is much higher than expected,
and so the simulated motion may not be very accurate.