Dusty plasma ionization instability with ion drag

The effect of ion drag on negatively charged dust grains is considered as a possible mechanism of excitation of the dust-acoustic (DA) ionization instability. It is found that DA waves are more and more damped as the coefficient for ion drag, mu, increases from zero to a critical value, mu(crit). For mu>mu(crit) a zero-frequency (nonpropagating) perturbation grows when the drag of the ions on the dust grains overcomes the effect of the perturbation electric field. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(98)04009-9].