Nonplanar dust-ion-acoustic double layers in a dusty nonthermal plasma

The possibility for the formation of the dust-ion-acoustic (DIA) double layers (DLs) in a four-component dusty nonthermal plasma (containing nonthermal electrons, inertial ions, and stationary positively as well as negatively charged dust) has been theoretically investigated by deriving a modified Gardner (MG) equation. The latter has been numerically analyzed in order to identify the basic features of the nonplanar (cylindrical and spherical) DIA DLs. The DIA DLs (that are shown to be associated only with negative potential) have been found to exist for a suitable value of alpha or mu, where alpha(mu) is the parameter determining the number of nonthermal electrons (net dust charge density) in the plasma system under consideration. The implications of our results in some space dusty plasma environments have been discussed.