Energy Loss of Test Charges in a Dusty Plasma in the Presence of Dynamical Grain Charging

Abstract

The dynamical charging of dust grains is an important process and is found to enhance the shielding of a test charge passing through a multi‐component dusty plasma. In the present work, the energy loss of a test charge projectile passing through a dusty plasma in the presence of dynamical grain charging is studied. The electric forces can be written in terms of the Maxwell stress tensor for a sphere around the test charge. For sphere with radius tending to zero the force is just that on the test charge. For a finite radius, forces on the plasma are also included which makes it possible to see how the force on the test charge is balanced by the force on the plasma. The method fails for the zero radius but the drag force can be found from a simple physical model. The general analytical results are presented and are compared with the previous results.