Article contents
Influence of target plasma nuclei collisions on correlated motion of fragmented H2+ protons
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2006
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to describe the influence of target plasma nuclei on the correlated motion of H2+ protons traversing classical plasma matter. Electronic stopping of the protons pair is treated by means of the dielectric formalism, while nuclear collisions are dealt within the classical dispersion theory through a Monte Carlo method. It is shown that vicinage electronic forces screen Coulomb repulsion between the two protons from H2+ ion decelerating the increase of their relative distance. Vicinage forces also align the interproton vector along the motion direction. However, proton interactions with plasma nuclei mask most of these vicinage effects. These nuclear collisions hide the screening effect produced by the vicinage forces, increasing the proton relative distance even faster than for bare Coulomb repulsion. The interproton vector along motion direction is also misaligned due to nuclear collisions. Nuclear collisions effects are more significant in reducing projectile velocity. In particular, all these effects are studied in a deuterium (D) plasma with temperature Te = 10 eV and electronic density n = 1023 cm−3.
Keywords
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © 2006 Cambridge University Press
References
REFERENCES
- 8
- Cited by