Large discrepancies observed in theoretical studies of ion-impact ionization of the atomic targets at large momentum transfer

Abstract

A full quantum mechanical version of the three-body distorted wave-eikonal initial state (3DW-EIS) theory is developed to study of the single ionization of the atomic targets by ion impact at different momentum transfers. The calculations are performed both with and without including the internuclear interaction in the transition amplitude. For 16 Mev O7+-He (1s2) and 24Mev O8+-Li (2s) collisions, the emission of the active electron into the scattering plane is considered and the fully differential cross-sections (FDCSs) are calculated for a fixed value of the ejected electron energy and a variety of momentum transfers. For both the specified collision systems, the obtained results are compared with the experimental data and with the crosssections obtained using the semi-classical continuum distorted wave-eikonal initial state (CDWEIS) approach. For 16Mev O7+-He (1s2), we also compared the results with those of a four-body three-Coulomb-wave (3CW) model. In general, we find some large discrepancies between the results obtained by different theories. These discrepancies are much more significant at larger momentum transfers. Also, for some ranges of the electron emission angles the results are much more sensitive to the internuclear interaction to be either turned on or off. © EPLA, 2018.