Theory of a cavity around a large floating sphere in complex (dusty) plasma.

In the last experiment with the PK-3 Plus laboratory onboard the International Space Station, interactions of millimeter-size metallic spheres with a complex plasma were studied [M. Schwabe et al., New J.

Dust coupling parameter of radio-frequency-discharge complex plasma under microgravity conditions.

Oscillation of particles in a dust crystal formed in a low-pressure radio-frequency gas discharge under microgravity conditions is studied. Analysis of experimental data obtained in our previous study shows that the oscillations are highly isotropic and nearly homogeneous in the bulk of a dust crystal; oscillations of the neighboring particles are significantly correlated. We demonstrate that the standard deviation of the particle radius vector along with the local particle number density fully define the coupling parameter of the particle subsystem.

Plasmakristall-4: New complex (dusty) plasma laboratory on board the International Space Station.

New complex-plasma facility, Plasmakristall-4 (PK-4), has been recently commissioned on board the International Space Station. In complex plasmas, the subsystem of μm-sized microparticles immersed in low-pressure weakly ionized gas-discharge plasmas becomes strongly coupled due to the high (10-10 e) electric charge on the microparticle surface. The microparticle subsystem of complex plasmas is available for the observation at the kinetic level, which makes complex plasmas appropriate for particle-resolved modeling of classical condensed matter phenomena.

Density distribution of a dust cloud in three-dimensional complex plasmas.

We propose a method of determination of the dust particle spatial distribution in dust clouds that form in three-dimensional (3D) complex plasmas under microgravity conditions. The method utilizes the data obtained during the 3D scanning of a cloud, and it provides reasonably good accuracy. Based on this method, we investigate the particle density in a dust cloud realized in gas discharge plasma in the PK-3 Plus setup onboard the International Space Station.

Assessing particle kinematics via template matching algorithms.

Template matching algorithms represent a viable tool to locate particles in optical images. A crucial factor of the performance of these methods is the choice of the similarity measure. Recently, it was shown in [Gao and Helgeson, Opt.