Stochastic Acceleration of Dust Grains in the Saturn Rings

In a previous work we developed a model in which it is possible to estimate the gain and loose of energy of a population of ions in the Saturnian's magnetospheric region. Ions like H+, C+, O+, N+, and N2+ are being accelerated to energies of hundreds of MeV. In this work we applied the same model to charged and neutral dust grains in the Saturn rings using stochastic forces of electromagnetic and gravitational origin. The charged dust grains were more accelerated than the neutral ones. This could explain the levitation of the material of the spokes.