Screening of a moving charge in a nonequilibrium plasma

The problem of screening a moving charged dust particle is analyzed in the model of point sinks. Typical time scales for the formation of a polarization cloud around the moving macroscopic particle are found using the three-dimensional integral transform with respect to the spatial coordinates and the Laplace transform in time. It is shown that the stationary potential of a moving charge has a dipole component dominating at sufficiently large distances. The force exerted on a moving charged macroscopic particle by the electric field of induced charges is calculated. It is shown that, in general, the direction of this force depends on the ratio between the transfer coefficient and the decay rate of plasma particles in the plasma. In the presence of sinks, a dust particle is accelerated by this force if the Langevin recombination rate for ions, β _iL = 4πeμ _i , exceeds the electron-ion recombination rate β _ei . In the absence of sinks or if β _ei > β _iL this force is antiparallel to the dust-particle velocity.