Charging of Fractal Dust Agglomerates in a Plasma Environment

Summary form only given. In studying the coagulation of micron-sized dust grains (an important process in fields as diverse as planet formation and plasma processing of silicon wafers for computer chips) it has become evident that the charge on the grains plays a crucial role in the structure and evolution of the grains in the dust population. In particular, the manner in which the charge is arranged on the grain due to anisotropic charging currents, charge rearrangement on the surface, or induced charge-dipole interactions is a critical factor in determining the coagulation rate and size evolution of the dust cloud. Here we present preliminary models for the charge on fractal aggregates immersed in a plasma environment.