Positron impact excitations of hydrogen atom embedded in weakly coupled plasmas: Formation of Rydberg atoms

Journal Article · Mon Sep 15 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4895491· OSTI ID:22303666

Rej, Pramit; Ghoshal, Arijit ^[1]

---

1. Department of Mathematics, Burdwan University, Golapbag, Burdwan 713 104, West Bengal (India)

Formation of Rydberg atoms due to 1s→nlm excitations of hydrogen, for arbitrary n, l, m, by positron impact in weakly coupled plasma has been investigated using a distorted-wave theory in the momentum space. The interactions among the charged particles in the plasma have been represented by Debye-Huckel potentials. Making use of a simple variationally determined wave function for the hydrogen atom, it has been possible to obtain the distorted-wave scattering amplitude in a closed analytical form. A detailed study has been made on the effects of plasma screening on the differential and total cross sections in the energy range 20–300 eV of incident positron. For the unscreened case, our results agree nicely with some of the most accurate results available in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, such a study on the differential and total cross sections for 1s→nlm inelastic positron-hydrogen collisions for arbitrary n, l, m in weakly coupled plasmas is the first reported in the literature.

• OSTI ID: 22303666
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 21; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CHARGED PARTICLES
DISTORTED WAVE THEORY
EV RANGE 01-10
HYDROGEN
PLASMA
POSITRONS
SCATTERING AMPLITUDES
TOTAL CROSS SECTIONS
VARIATIONAL METHODS