Sentence:  Further , the corpuscular radiation , i.e. , the solar wind protons , must <WSD>sputter</WSD> away the surface atoms of the dust and cause a slow diminution in size , with a resultant increase in both the Poynting-Robertson effect and the ratio of the repulsive force to the gravitational force . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  cause to undergo a process in which atoms are removed