Quantitative comparison of the isotropic and anisotropic Maxwellian velocity space distribution function models in a dusty plasma

Measurements of the velocity space distribution in a weakly coupled dusty plasma are modeled with both the spherically symmetric Maxwellian probability distribution function and the ellipsoidally symmetric trinormal probability distribution function. The effectiveness of the two models is compared quantitatively using an application of Bayesian probability theory which shows that the anisotropy included in the trinormal model provides a much improved description of the system. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.066403