Target tracking in a dusty plasma: phase transitions and equations of state*

A dusty plasma is a low-density ionized gas containing micron-sized charged dust particles. Laboratory dusty plasmas can be used as kinematic simulators of condensed matter systems, displaying phenomena such as phase transitions. The motion of individual particles is resolvable using a high-speed video camera. We use recursive state estimation (target tracking) techniques to track the dust kinematics, from which we calculate an equation of state for the toy condensed matter system.