Radiation forces between dust grains in a plasma

In this work we show that a repulsive force between nearby dust grains in a plasma can exist, due to scattering of the incident radiation. Two types of forces are discussed, one of them being formally identical to electrostatic repulsion. This leads to the definition of an effective dust charge of the dust grain, which only depends on the scattering process. Our discussion shows that such a repulsive interaction occurs in quite general physical conditions.