Abstract. We consider the motion of uncharged dust grains of arbitrary shape including the effects of electromagnetic radiation and thermal emission. The resulting relativistically covariant equation of motion is expressed in terms of standard optical parameters.Explicit expressions for secular changes of osculating orbital elements are derived in detail for the special case of the Poynting-Robertson effect. Two subcases are considered: (i) central acceleration due to gravity and the radial component of radiation pressure independent of the particle velocity, (ii) central acceleration given by gravity and the radiation force as the disturbing force. The latter case yields results which may be compared with secular orbital evolution in terms of orbital elements for an arbitrarily shaped dust particle. The effects of solar wind are also presented.

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In this paper, we investigate the action of solar wind on an arbitrarily shaped interplanetary dust particle. The final relativistically covariant equation of motion of the particle also contains the change of the particle’s mass. The non‐radial solar wind velocity vector is also included. The covariant equation of motion reduces to the Poynting–Robertson effect in the limiting case when a spherical particle is treated, when the speed of the incident solar wind corpuscles tends to the speed of light and when the corpuscles spread radially from the Sun. The results of quantum mechanics have to be incorporated into the physical considerations, in order to obtain the limiting case. If the solar wind affects the motion of a spherical interplanetary dust particle, then . Here, p′in and p′out are the incoming and outgoing radiation momenta (per unit time), respectively, measured in the proper frame of reference of the particle, and and are the solar wind pressure and the total scattering cross‐sections, respectively. An analytical solution of the derived equation of motion yields a qualitative behaviour consistent with numerical calculations. This also holds if we consider a decrease of the particle’s mass. Using numerical integration of the derived equation of motion, we confirm our analytical result that the non‐radial solar wind (with a constant value of angle between the radial direction and the direction of the solar wind velocity) causes outspiralling of the dust particle from the Sun for large values of the particle’s semimajor axis. The non‐radial solar wind also increases the time the particle spirals towards the Sun. If we consider the periodical variability of the solar wind with the solar cycle, then there are resonances between the particle’s orbital period and the period of the solar cycle.

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Derivations of the Poynting-Robertson effect are presented. They are based on the corpuscular nature of light (unlike Robertson's 1937 derivation). It is justified why currently presented derivations are incorrect and why classical (nonrelativistic) physics is not able to understand this effect. Relativistically covariant derivations not only for perfectly absorbing (spherical) dust particles are presented. Fundamental feature of the interaction between the dust particle and the electromagnetic radiation is the conservation of the (proper) mass of the particle.

It has recently been shown that the illumination of dust beds in a low‐pressure gaseous environment can generate massive ejections of dust if the light source is turned off. This effect might explain dust entrainment into the atmosphere of Mars and might destroy dusty planetesimals in protoplanetary discs. As ejection mechanism we consider compression of gas by thermal creep through the pores of the dust bed (Knudsen compressor). To approach this problem quantitatively we combine theoretical calculations of radiative and heat transfer with laboratory experiments. In this work we focus on the theoretical aspect and numerical modelling of irradiated surfaces. Temperature gradients calculated and pressure differences established by Knudsen compression are in general agreement to the threshold necessary to eject particles.

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