Theory of interparticle correlations in dense, high-temperature plasmas. IV. Stopping power

The stopping power of a dense, two-component plasma is calculated in the dielectric formulation, where the static and dynamic local-field corrections (LFC’s) describing strong Coulomb-coupling effects beyond the random-phase approximation are explicitly taken into account. We thus clarify the extent to which the LFC’s and the presence of ions act to modify the rate of inelastic scattering. It is found that when the velocity v of the injected particle is smaller than the Fermi velocity $v_F$ of the electrons, LFC’s enhance the stopping power; when v≪$v_F$, the ionic contribution may predominate over the electronic contribution, which takes on a much reduced magnitude.