The energy dissipation of a test-charge particle within a dense, degenerate electron- positron-ion plasma

Abstract

The energy loss of a moving test-charge particle is studied in a degenerate quantized plasma, whose constituents are the electrons, positrons, and ions. The electrons and positrons are assumed to be quantized and degenerate species, whereas positive ions are treated classically. Relying on the kinetic formalism, an expression for the test-charge potential is derived with a modified dielectric response function involving the ion-acoustic oscillations. The energy loss or stopping power is solvedas a function of a test-charge speed, which is significantly affected by the positron concentration, the electron and positron quantization factors and plasma parameters. It is examined that quantization and quantum parameters lead to the enhancement of energy loss in an electron-positron-ion (EPI) dense plasma. The present findings may prove useful to understand the test-charge response in degenerate dense plasmas, where electrons and positrons are quantized in the strong magnetic fields.