Anomalous plasma diffusion and modified dust transport at high magnetic fields in the Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment (MDPX)

Operating a steady state, low temperature at high magnetic field (B > 1 T) represents a relatively unexplored regime of laboratory plasma science. Previous experiments using the MDPX device have focused on the pattern formation (filamentation), plasma and dusty plasma waves, and particle growth in a rf generated, capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) configuration. This presentation will report on recent experimental and computational studies of transport processes in strongly magnetized plasmas. In the first study, the transport of dust particles between filamentary structures in the plasma is used to diagnose the potential structure of these self-organized plasma phenomena. Experimental observations will be compared with preliminary numerical modeling. The second study reports on experimental observations of anomalously slow diffusive processes in experiments with B > 1 T where the motion of a probe can leave a visible imprint on the plasma for several seconds after removal from the plasma volume. This presentation will report on how this phenomenon scales with neutral gas pressure and magnetic field strength.