GAS DUST INTERACTION IN DUSTY X-RAY EMITTING PLASMAS

Eli Dwek (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

Dusty X-ray emitting plasmas are a singular astrophysical environment in which the
energetics and evolution of the dust are dominated by the collisional interactions
with the ambient gas. In additional to the usual information on the abundance, composition
and size distribution of the dust, the infrared spectrum of a dusty plasma provides unique
information on the physical conditions of the gas: its density, the temperature of its
constituent electrons and ions, and its cooling rate by gas-grain collisions. Collisions
between the dust grains and the ions also erode the dust via thermal and kinetic
sputtering, releasing refractory elements previously locked in the solids, back to
the gas phase of the interstellar medium. In this talk I will briefly review the basic
physical interactions between the dust and gas with an application to the shocked
X-ray emitting medium around SN1987a.