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Collisional charging of small interstellar particles is reexamined, including effects due to electrostatic polarization of grains by the electric fields of approaching charged particles. The interaction potentials and resulting energy-dependent collisional cross sections are discussed and used to obtain the collisional charging rate for grains of specified charges in a thermal plasma. The probability distribution of the grain charges is obtained, and the application of the results to the interstellar medium is illustrated by considering the power-law grain size distribution of Mathis, Rumpl, and Nordsieck (1977). It is found that dust grains with such a size distribution can contribute appreciably to the recombination of metal ions in dark clouds.
Draine et al. (Tue,) studied this question.