Behavior of Small Particles in Gases and Plasmas

Abstract

Collisions of clusters or small particles with surrounding atomic particles determine the character of interaction of clusters with the gas or plasma in which they are located. Hence, parameters of this interaction are expressed through the characteristics of the elementary act of collision of clusters with atomic particles - atoms, molecules, electrons, ions. In order to extract the principal features of the elementary act of collisions involving clusters, we consider a cluster as a spherical drop with a structureless surface. In addition, we assume the cluster size to be large compared to the radius of atomic forces. It is clear that the larger the cluster, the better this condition is fulfilled. This assumption leads to a simple model of collisions involving clusters. In considering the collision of an atomic particle with a cluster, we replace a cluster by a hard sphere whose radius r is equal to the cluster radius. Note that in this assumption a cluster and small particle are identical.