Effect of ionization/recombination processes on the electrical interactions between positively charged particles in highly collisional plasmas

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ionization and recombination processes influence electrical interactions between charged particles in highly collisional plasmas, showing they suppress long-range attraction and deriving conditions for this effect.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical analysis of ionization and recombination effects on particle interactions, providing conditions for when attraction vanishes in such plasmas.

Findings

Ionization and recombination suppress long-range attraction.

Derived conditions for the disappearance of attraction.

Estimated relevance for existing experimental conditions.

Abstract

The effect of ionization and recombination processes on the electrical interactions between a pair of small charged particles in highly collisional plasmas is discussed. In particular, it is shown that these processes suppress the long-range attraction between positively charged particles. The condition corresponding to the vanishing of attraction is derived. The role of the effect for conditions of existing experiments is estimated.