Electrodynamic Aggregation of Nanodust as a Source of Long-Lived Filaments in Laboratory Electric Discharges and Space

Formation of a skeleton composed of a fractal condensed matter was suggested to explain the unexpected longevity of filamentary structures observed in various laboratory electric discharges and space. We present the numerical modeling results on the electrodynamic aggregation of nanodust in the frame of a simple model which describes many-body system of magnetized thin rods (1-D magnetic dipoles), with electrical conductivity and electric charge, screened by an ambient medium. The model is shown to describe self-assembling of a coaxial tubular skeleton from initially linear filaments, composed of such blocks, between the biased electrodes, and self-assembling of a quasi-planar skeletal network from similar filaments, detached from electrodes and located within a plasma filament.