Electronic spin-flipping collisions of hydrogen atoms

Journal Article · Mon Mar 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.81.032506· OSTI ID:21408412

Zygelman, B ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154 (United States)

We present a unified multichannel approach to calculate electron spin-exchange and spin-flipping transition cross sections for collisions of H with H, H with T, and T with T. We use the theory to calculate the hyperfine quenching cross sections for collision energies that range from 1 mK to thermal temperatures. We show that spin-flipping transitions are induced by the splitting of the b {sup 3{Sigma}}{sub u} Born-Oppenheimer potential via the long-range magnetic interactions among electrons. We find that the spin-flipping cross sections in the tritium dimer are about a magnitude larger than that predicted by mass scaling the H-H cross sections. For the former, we show that the spin-exchange cross sections are several magnitudes larger, at cold temperatures, than that of the hydrogen system. We compare the results of the multichannel approach with those obtained using approximate methods such as the degenerate internal-state, the elastic, and Born approximations and discuss their respective range of validity.

• OSTI ID: 21408412
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 81; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
APPROXIMATIONS
ATOMS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BORN APPROXIMATION
BORN-OPPENHEIMER APPROXIMATION
CALCULATION METHODS
COLLISIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CROSS SECTIONS
DIMERS
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
EVALUATION
FERMIONS
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INTERACTIONS
ISOTOPES
LEPTONS
LIGHT NUCLEI
MASS
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
POTENTIALS
RADIOISOTOPES
SPIN EXCHANGE
SPIN FLIP
TRITIUM
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES