On the potential energy in an electrostatically bound two-body system

TL;DR

This paper explores the concept of potential energy in electrostatically bound two-body systems using a novel impact model, describing how energy varies with distance through hypothetical interaction entities.

Contribution

It introduces a new impact model framework to analyze electrostatic potential energy, providing a physical process-based explanation for energy variation.

Findings

Potential energy varies with distance due to modified interaction entities.

Energy transfer is explained through hypothetical interaction distributions.

The model draws an analogy to gravitational potential energy.

Abstract

The potential energy problem in an electrostatically bound two-body system is studied in the framework of a recently proposed impact model of the electrostatic force and in analogy to the potential energy in a gravitationally bound system. The physical processes are described that result in the variation of the potential energy as a function of the distance between the charged bodies. The energy is extracted from distributions of hypothetical interaction entities modified by the charged bodies.