Energy loss of charged projectiles in dusty plasmas

Abstract

The analytical and numerical results for the slowing down of two heavy projectile ions passing through a multicomponent dusty plasma are presented. Within the linear dielectric approach, the electrostatic potential and the stopping power of the two projectiles are computed for different values of KD (the normalized effective wave number) and R (the separation between the two projectiles) retaining two-ion-correlation effects. The enhancement in the energy loss is observed, and it is compared with that of a single ion projectile case. These results are useful to explain the crystallization of dust grains in astrophysical and laboratory plasmas.