Mean spherical model for strongly coupled dusty plasmas

A solution of the mean spherical model is presented for particles interacting with a pair potential which is repulsive at short-range and attractive at long-range. The solution can be used for the description of the structure of strongly-coupled dusty plasmas, represented as one component systems of dust particles with an interaction potential determined by the plasma dynamics; a screened Coulomb repulsive interaction at short distances and a long-range attraction due to a screened “shadow effect” on the plasma fluxes to the dust particles. A comparison with recent experimental results shows a better agreement when the attractive potential is present.