Abstract
Expressions are given for the drag due to Coulomb collisions on a charged dust grain moving through a plasma. The commonly used Chandrasekhar result does not include large scattering angles or plasma collective effects. An equation given by Mornfill et al. (1980, Planet. Space Sci. 28, 1087), which does include large scattering angles, is limited to one-dimensional plasma particle motion and can give at least an order of magnitude too much drag. We also make use of an analogy between the drag problem and problems in electrostatics. This analogy permits generalization to any isotropic plasma of an observation made by Chandrasekhar for a Maxwellian—that the drag is independent of the presence or absence of plasma particles moving faster than the grain. Finally, we study the contribution of plasma collective effects to the drag, with the inclusion of large scattering angles as well.
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