STOPPING POWER OF HEAVY-ION BEAMS IN STRONGLY COUPLED PLASMAS

The stopping power of heavy-ion beams in strongly coupled target plasm as is investigated by performing molecular dynamics (MD) computer simu lations. For a comparison of our results we examine effects of ion-ion correlations on the stopping power of a rigid ion lattice moving thro ugh a target plasma within dielectric response theory. While the diele ctric description show enhanced stopping power due to multi-ion interf erences, we do not observe this in the MD simulations. We find that th ese interferences are destroyed by collisions and the enhancement of s topping power disappears for strong coupling. This confirms the import ance of particle collisions in this regime.