Metal surface can repel electric charges
(Phys.org)—Metals are known for being good electrical conductors. Due to this property, a stationary electric point charge placed outside a metal will cause the electrons in the metal to redistribute in such a way that the point charge will always be attracted toward the metal surface. However, a new study shows that a metal surface will repel an electric charge packet moving parallel to it when the charge packet has a certain geometry and travels at a sufficiently high energy. It's not just metal surfaces that repel electric charges; any surface will repel this kind of charge packet since the repulsion is caused by the properties of the packet, not the surface. The counterintuitive phenomenon could have implications for improving particle accelerator experiments.