Dielectric properties of interacting storage ring plasmas

A dielectric function (DF) including collisional correlations is derived by linearizing the self-consistent Vlasov equation with a Fokker-Planck collision integral. The calculation yields the same type of dielectric function as in the standard theory of Schottky noise in storage rings. This dielectric function is compared with the Mermin dielectric function derived from a kinetic equation with a relaxation-time approximation. We observe that these functions are identical, however the Mermin DF is computationally advantageous. The limits of both dielectric functions are given and the sum rules are proven. We apply these dielectric functions for typical storage ring plasmas and calculate the stopping power and the plasmon excitation spectrum.