Scaling Law for the Fluid-Solid Phase Transition
in Yukawa Systems (Dusty Plasmas)¹

O. S. Vaulina* and S. A. Khrapak

High Energy Density Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 127412 Russia
*e-mail: ipdustpl@redline.ru

Received June 9, 1999

Abstract—Yukawa systems serve as models for plasmas and colloidal suspensions of charged particles. The
state of these systems is determined by two dimensionless parameters: k = a/_D, which is the ratio of the mean
interparticle distance to the Debye length _D, and = e²/aT_d, which is the ratio of the Coulomb potential
energy to the particle temperature T_d (Z_d is the charge of each particle). We propose an empirical scaling law
for the critical coupling parameter _c needed for crystallization in Yukawa systems. The dependence of _c on k
is in good agreement with recent molecular dynamics simulations. © 2000 MAIK “Nauka/Interperiodica”.

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