An impact-parameter method for heavy-particle collisions involving one electron. I. Theory and sample results on H+-H and He2+-H collisions

Abstract

A new impact-parameter method for calculating excitation and electron-capture cross sections in collisions between a one-electron atom or ion and a bare nucleus is described. The wavefunction is expanded in a large number (of the order of 30) of basis functions specially defined for this problem, and the time-dependent Schrodinger equation is solved subject only to the error arising from the truncation of the expansion. The method is applied to proton-hydrogen collisions at incident energies of 25, 49 and 60 keV and to the charge-transfer processes in He2+-H collisions at incident energies of 3He2+ of 30 and 49 keV. Results are compared with those of other investigations, both theoretical and experimental.