Excitation of hydrogen atoms at intermediate and high energies by proton impact under a three-body Born-Faddeev-type formalism

Abstract

In this work, differential cross sections have been calculated for the excitation of atomic hydrogen (H) from its ground state (1s) into a selection of its excited states (2s, 2p0, 2p1 and 3s). The present study was conducted at intermediate and high proton impact energies within the range 50 keV-1 MeV. A three-body model based on Faddeev-type equations is implemented, while near the energy shell the two-body Coulomb transition matrix was used to calculate the transition amplitude. Second and higher order approximations have been ignored in this case. The resulting amplitudes are subsequently utilized to calculate total and differential cross sections for the corresponding excitation processes. These calculated cross sections have then been compared with available experimental data and other theoretical results from the literature. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.