On the potential energy in an electrostatically bound two-body system

Abstract

The potential energy problem in an electrostatically bound two-body system is studied in the framework of a recently proposed impact model of the electrostatic force and in analogy to the potential energy in a gravitationally bound system. The physical processes are described that result in the variation of the potential energy as a function of the distance between the charged bodies. The energy is extracted from distributions of hypothetical interaction entities modified by the charged bodies.