The role of dust particles with large gyroradii in the `2/3´ fall-down process

The authors consider the Alfven-Arrhenius fall-down process and propose a mechanism whereby the Rosseland electric field (the field needed to maintain quasineutrality) may be responsible for the capture and confinement of large-gyroradius dust particles within a plasma shell stratified along the direction of the magnetic-field lines. For these particles, the effect of the magnetic force is rather weak, and they move with a constant z component of the angular momentum in a one-dimensional equivalent potential (gravitational plus centrifugal). This has a maximum at the equator and a minimum at the `2/3´ points, i.e. the points where the field-aligned components of the gravitational and centrifugal forces balance. It is shown that under suitable initial conditions these are points of maximum dust density and minimum plasma density. The plasma-planetisemal transition is therefore expected to take place at the `2/3´ points in accordance with the Alfven-Arrhenius mechanism. It is also shown that the fraction of infalling dust particles that can accrete onto the equatorial plane by the Alfven-Arrhenius and Rosseland mechanisms is rather small (~(L/ R_e)≪1), L being the thickness of the plasma shell, and R_e, a characteristic length scale of the field line