Calculation of plasma parameters around a chain of dust particles with a vacancy

A multiblock numerical model was used to study the phenomenon of vacancy formation in a chain of dust particles. Self-consistent spatial distributions of the space charge and electric potential around the dust particles for two cases were obtained by means of numerical calculations: a linear chain of five particles and a chain of four particles with a vacancy. The equilibrium charges of particles and the magnitudes of the main forces acting on them (the ion drag force, the Coulomb force of particle repulsion, and the force exerted by an external electric field on charged particles) were calculated. It was shown that vacancy formation, without changing the structural parameters of the chain, occurs under conditions of strong ion trails, with the fourth and fifth particles in the strong ion trail of the second particle.