Energy loss of a test charge in partially ionized dusty plasmas

Abstract

The energy loss of a test charge particle in an unmagnetized dusty plasma is estimated, by incorporating the dust–neutral collisions. A slowly damping large amplitude wake field is observed which moves ahead of the test charge position for large dust–neutral collision frequencies. A critical test charge velocity is determined for a particular dust–neutral collision frequency below which the test charge gains energy instead of losing. The collisions enhance the energy loss only for the test charge velocities greater than the dust acoustic speed.

Pushing microscopic matter in plasma with an electron beam

“…where λ g =0.182 is a constant, Z, A and ρ are the atomic number, atomic mass and density of the material, respectively, and E 0 is the EB energy [26,27]. The stopping power is important in dusty plasmas for evaluating the deceleration of a fast test charge crossing a plasma crystal, such as an ion, a projectile or an assembly of projectiles with mass comparable with that of the MPs [28][29][30][31]. The range R CSDA of an electron as it continuously slows down to rest in the material is obtained from the relation ( ) Ar -10 7 g cm −3 .…”

Energy Loss of a Test Charge in Collisional Dusty Plasmas

“…In the present discussion, however, we shall consider only the equilibrium charge state, ignoring its £uctuations. The latter e¡ect has been discussed earlier by the authors [18,19]. During the charging process, the dust particles pile up charge as more and more electrons are attached to them.…”

“…Later they also found that the dust charge £uctuation enhances the energy loss of a test charge in a dusty plasma when the charge relaxation rate is very high and vice versa [17,18]. The energy loss of a test charge was also investigated [19] in a partially ionized dusty plasma and it was found that a slow test charge gains energy and can thus accelerate up to the thermal speed of the ambient plasma. There is, however, a need to investigate collisional e¡ects on the electrostatic (ES) potential as well as on the energy loss of the test charge particles as they propagate through a multi-component dusty plasma having di¡erent dust parameters such as dust-charge state, dust-number density, dust-charge £uctuations and dust-neutral collisions.…”

Effects of dust-charge fluctuations on the potential of an array of projectiles in a partially ionized dusty plasma

“…Stenflo et al 13 incorporated electron-neutral collisions using Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook ͑BGK͒ model and studied its effects on the electrostatic potential of a slowly moving test charge. Since the dust grain charges are not constant, Nasim et al 14,15 investigated the effects of dust charge fluctuations and the dust-neutral collisions on the electrostatic potential and the energy loss due to a single projectile both analytically and numerically. Recently, Shukla and Stenflo 16 calculated the potential for a slowly moving test charge in a positive dust-electron plasma incorporating the charge fluctuation and the collisional effects.…”