Friedel oscillations in quantum degenerate collisional plasma. Screening of point charge

TL;DR

This paper investigates how collisions affect Friedel oscillations in quantum degenerate plasma, revealing that collisions cause exponential damping and phase shifts, with implications for plasma screening properties.

Contribution

The study provides the first analysis of collision effects on Friedel oscillations in quantum degenerate plasma using a new dielectric function expression.

Findings

Collisions exponentially decrease Friedel oscillation amplitude.

Collision-induced phase shift is half of the inverse product of Fermi wave number and electron mean free path.

Correct dielectric permeability expression for collisional plasma is utilized.

Abstract

Research of influence of collisions on Friedel oscillations in quantum degenerate collisional plasma (T=0) is carried out for the first time. It is shown that presence of collisions in plasma leads to exponential decreasing of amplitude and phase shift of the Friedel oscillations. In linear approximation the phase shift is equal to the half of quantity inverse to product of Fermi's wave number by free length path of electrons. The correct expression for longitudinal dielectric permeability of the quantum collisional plasma found by the authors (see arxiv:1001.3937 [math-ph] 22 Jan 2010) is used.