Separation of the screening and antiscreening effects in the electron loss of He+ on H2 and He

Pauli Shielding and Breakdown of Spin Statistics in Multielectron Multi-Open-Shell Dynamical Atomic Systems

We report on C^{3+}(1s2ℓ2ℓ^{'} ^{2S+1}L)-resolved cross sections of electron capture in collisions of swift C^{4+}(1s2s ^{3}S) ions with helium and hydrogen. The study focuses on the formation of doubly excited triply open-shell C^{3+}(1s2s2p) ^{4}P and ^{2}P_{±} states with emphasis on the ratio R of their cross sections as a measure of spin statistics. Using zero-degree Auger projectile spectroscopy and a three-electron close-coupling semiclassical approach, we resolve a long-standing puzzle and controversy on the value of R and on the effect of cascades, to clarify the underlying physics. The present results invalidate the frozen core approximation generally used in the past when considering electron capture in multielectron multi-open-shell quantum systems. A distinctive screening effect due to the Pauli exclusion principle (Pauli shielding) is proposed to account for the value of R, consistent with our findings.

Two-center interferences in dielectronic transitions in H2(+) + He collisions

Molecular two-center interferences in a collision induced excitation of H2(+) projectile ions, with simultaneous ionization of helium target atoms, are investigated in a kinematically complete experiment. In the process under investigation, the helium atom is singly ionized and simultaneously the molecular hydrogen ion is dissociated. Different collision mechanisms are identified and interference fringes emerging from a correlated first-order mechanism and from an independent second-order process are observed.

Influence of Ar(2)+ in an argon collisional-radiative model

A nonlinear time-dependent collisional-radiative model for recombining argon is presented. Reactions involving Ar(2)+ are taken into account and their influence is discussed. It is shown that Ar(2)+ may increase the time to reach the quasi-steady-state by a factor of 100. The calculation of the recombination rate coefficient at the quasi-steady-state is presented. An analytical expression is derived and compared with existing literature values. The importance of the increase of the quasi-steady-state time is illustrated by comparisons of excited levels population densities distribution measured in a fast moving plasma where the mechanical time scale is sufficiently short to provide a time-dependent chemistry in a reference frame moving with the flow. The high sensitivity of the results towards the electron number density is pointed out. Finally, the influence of the processes involving Ar(2)+ on the excitation temperature is discussed.

Simultaneous projectile-target ionization: a novel approach to (e, 2e) experiments on ions

A kinematically complete experiment for simultaneous ionization of a projectile and target has been performed for 3.6 MeV/u C2+ on He collisions measuring the final vector momenta of the He1+ recoil ion and of two electrons (projectile, target) in coincidence with the emerging C3+ projectile. The feasibility of an event-by-event separation of the various reaction channels, among them the ionization of C2+ by the interaction with a quasifree target electron, is demonstrated in agreement with six-body classical trajectory Monte Carlo calculations, paving the way to kinematically complete electron-ion scattering experiments.

Effective strength of the electron-electron interaction in simultaneous projectile and target ionization

The determination of the right balance between the strong-field interaction of the screened target nucleus and the two-center electron-electron interaction has been controversial since the early attempts to describe the stripping of light, swift ions, by heavy targets. In this work, we find a region of influence for the electron-electron contribution which clearly indicates that this interaction is an essential contribution to the stripping process for both light and heavy targets.