Acceleration of small astrophysical grains due to charge fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new mechanism where charge fluctuations on small dust grains in space lead to their acceleration, impacting processes like grain coagulation and shattering.

Contribution

It presents a novel charge-fluctuation-induced acceleration mechanism for small astrophysical dust grains, driven by plasma surface processes.

Findings

Charge fluctuations can significantly accelerate grains smaller than 0.1 μm.

This acceleration influences the rate of grain coagulation and shattering.

The mechanism is driven by irreversible plasma processes on grain surfaces.

Abstract

We discuss a novel mechanism of dust acceleration which may dominate for particles smaller than $\sim0.1~\mu$m. The acceleration is caused by their direct electrostatic interactions arising from fluctuations of grain charges. The energy source for the acceleration are the irreversible plasma processes occurring on the grain surfaces. We show that this mechanism of charge-fluctuation-induced acceleration likely affects the rate of grain coagulation and shattering of the population of small grains.