Bound states near a moving charge in a quantum plasma

TL;DR

This paper explores how a moving charge's bound states in a quantum plasma are affected by shielding, revealing that motion causes energy level splitting and depends on charge and plasma parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze bound states near a moving charge in a quantum plasma using the Lindhard dielectric function and Schrödinger equation, highlighting the effect of motion on energy levels.

Findings

Energy levels are mainly determined by charge and plasma coupling.

Motion causes splitting of certain energy levels.

Number of bound states depends on charge and plasma parameters.

Abstract

It is investigated how the shielding of a moving point charge in a one-component fully degenerate fermion plasma affects the bound states near the charge at velocities smaller than the Fermi one. The shielding is accounted for by using the Lindhard dielectric function, and the resulting potential is substituted into the Schr\"odinger equation in order to obtain the energy levels. Their number and values are shown to be primarily determined by the value of the charge and the quantum plasma coupling parameter, while the main effect of the motion is to split certain energy levels. This provides a link between quantum plasma theory and possible measurements of spectra of ions passing through solids.