Energy loss of charged projectiles in a self-gravitating Lorentzian dusty plasma

Abstract

The energy loss of a pair of test charge projectiles passing through a multicomponent, self-gravitating, dusty plasma with a generalized Lorentzian distribution is presented. Analytical and numerical results are obtained for the shielded potential and for the slowing down of a pair of test charge projectiles. The correlation and interference effects of two collinear and noncollinear projectiles on the shielded potential as well as on the energy loss are presented. An interference contribution of these projectiles to the potential and energy loss is observed that depends upon their orientation and separation distance. It is found that the energy loss of collinear projectiles decreases with the increase of the dust Jeans frequency for any separation distance. On the other hand, with small values of κ (the generalized Lorentzian distribution case), the test charge projectile gains energy instead of losing for projectile velocity greater than the thermal velocity of the dust, and this gain is increased as we increase the dust Jeans frequency. These results are helpful to understand the energy loss mechanism, which plays an important role in explaining the coagulation of dust particles in molecular clouds as well as in dust plasma crystal formation.