Generalized expressions for momentum and energy losses of charged particle beams in non-Maxwellian multi-species plasmas and spherical symmetry

Generalized expressions for the rates of change of the momentum, energy and thermal anisotropy of fast, charged particle beams interacting with non-Maxwellian multi-species plasmas are derived. The results hold for the case of spherically symmetric systems and, therefore, are relevant for inertial confinement fusion schemes driven by fast charged particle beams and for various astro-physical situations. The calculations are based on the Fokker-Planckformalism. The effects connected with the departures from the Maxwellian distribution functions are expressed in terms of their fifth moments, , which reflect the role of the non-Maxwellian tails. The familiar stopping power expression holding for Maxwellian targets is recovered as a particular case.