  There has recently been interest in the role of inverse bremsstrahlung, the
emission of photons by fast suprathermal ions in collisions with ambient
electrons possessing relatively low velocities, in tenuous plasmas in various
astrophysical contexts. This follows a long hiatus in the application of
suprathermal ion bremsstrahlung to astrophysical models since the early 1970s.
The potential importance of inverse bremsstrahlung relative to normal
bremsstrahlung, i.e. where ions are at rest, hinges upon the underlying
velocity distributions of the interacting species. In this paper, we identify
the conditions under which the inverse bremsstrahlung emissivity is significant
relative to that for normal bremsstrahlung in shocked astrophysical plasmas. We
determine that, since both observational and theoretical evidence favors
electron temperatures almost comparable to, and certainly not very deficient
relative to proton temperatures in shocked plasmas, these environments
generally render inverse bremsstrahlung at best a minor contributor to the
overall emission. Hence inverse bremsstrahlung can be safely neglected in most
models invoking shock acceleration in discrete sources such as supernova
remnants. However, on scales > 100pc distant from these sources, Coulomb
collisional losses can deplete the cosmic ray electrons, rendering inverse
bremsstrahlung, and perhaps bremsstrahlung from knock-on electrons, possibly
detectable.
