Electric interactions between dust and hot plasmas in the solar system

Interaction of the charged particles of a plasma with a solid body is an old problem which has been investigated under various conditions, in particular by the authors in several papers (references in /1–4/). However, the electric potential of the grains may be more sensitive than expected to the physical state of grain matter and the physical parameters of plasmas in the solar system. Using a new model accounting for porosity, a characteristic feature of grains observed in the solar system, we have investigated the secondary electron emission under electron impact for porous materials. The conclusion is that porosity has a significant influence on the rate of electron ejection. It follows that the floating potential of porous grains can be different from that of grains made of bulk material, with consequences for grain dynamics in the environment of planets or comets.