Self-trapping of a light particle in a dense fluid: Application of scaled density-functional theory to the decay of orthopositronium

Journal Article · Thu Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 1990 · Physical Review, A; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.42.6068· OSTI ID:6145369

Reese, T; Miller, B N ^[1]

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1. Physics Department, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX (USA)

The localization of a light particle (e.g., electron, positron, or positronium atom) in a fluid is known as self-trapping. In an earlier paper (B. N. Miller and T. L. Reese, Phys. Rev. A 39, 4735 (1989)) we showed that (1) the density-functional theories (DFT's) of self-trapping could be derived from a mesoscopic model that employs a quantum-mechanical description of the light particle and a classical description of the fluid, and (2) the application of scaling to the simplest variant of DFT results in a universal model for all fluids that obey the principle of corresponding states. In this paper we apply the fully scaled theory to the pickoff annihilation of orthopositronium. Predictions of three different versions of the theory are compared with the experimental measurements of McNutt and Sharma on ethane (J. Chem. Phys. 68, 130 (1978)) and Tuomisaari, Rytsola, and Hautojarvi on argon (Phys. Lett. 112A, 279 (1988)). Best agreement is obtained from a model that incorporates transitions between localized and extended states.

• OSTI ID: 6145369
• Journal Information: Physical Review, A; (USA), Vol. 42:10; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
POSITRONIUM
ANNIHILATION
TRAPPING
ARGON
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DECAY
ETHANE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUIDS
SPIN ORIENTATION
ALKANES
BASIC INTERACTIONS
DATA
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELEMENTS
GASES
HYDROCARBONS
INFORMATION
INTERACTIONS
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORIENTATION
RARE GASES
640303* - Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics- Positronium
Muonium
& Muonic & Mesic Atoms & Molecules