Charged-particle slowing-down length in a hot plasma

The energy loss of a charged particle in a hot plasma in which the degeneracy of the electron subsystem is important is calculated from the dielectric function in the random phase approximation. An expression derived for the slowing-down length of a test particle incorporates corrections to the Coulomb logarithm which depend on the velocity of this particle. The slowing-down lengths of a proton, a triton, and an α particle in a hot plasma are calculated for the case of a degenerate electron subsystem. Results found for the stopping lengths in previous work are shown to be too low by a factor approx.3--5 for a plasma with a temperature Eta/sub e/approx.0.5 keV and a density napprox.1023--1024 cm-3