Real Dust Particles and Unimportance of the Poynting-Robertson Effect

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the Poynting-Robertson effect is negligible for real interplanetary dust particles, as their actual interactions with solar radiation differ significantly from the idealized effect, especially in terms of scattering.

Contribution

The study provides precise numerical analysis showing the Poynting-Robertson effect's insignificance for real dust particles, challenging previous assumptions.

Findings

Poynting-Robertson effect's deceleration is 10-100 times smaller than other scattering effects.

Real dust particles interact differently with electromagnetic radiation than idealized models suggest.

The validity condition for the Poynting-Robertson effect is not met for actual dust particles.

Abstract

The importance of the Poynting-Robertson effect on the motion of interplanetary dust particles is discussed. Precise numerical calculations for real dust particle show that condition for the validity of the Poynting-Robertson effect is not fulfilled. The interaction of the (solar) electromagnetic radiation with really shaped dust particle is different from that which yields the Poynting-Robertson effect. The magnitude of the Poynting-Robertson effect's deceleration term is in one to two orders in magnitude (it depends on particle's size) less important than terms corresponding to nonforward (or, nonbackward) scattering.