ATLAS OF CROSS SECTIONS FOR SCATTERING OF MUONIC HYDROGEN ATOMS ON HYDROGEN ISOTOPE MOLECULES

Abstract

The total cross sections of the elastic, spin-flip, and charge-exchange processes for the scattering of muonic hydrogen isotope atoms (pμ,dμ,tμ) in the ground state on hydrogen isotope molecules (H2, D2, T2, HD, HT, DT) are calculated. The scattering cross sections of muonic hydrogen isotope atoms on hydrogen isotope nuclei obtained earlier in the multichannel adiabatic approach are used in the calculations. Molecular effects (electron screening, rotational and vibrational excitations of target molecules, etc.) are taken into account. The spin effects of the target molecules and of the incident muonic atoms are included. The cross sections are averaged over the Boltzmann distribution of the molecule rotational states and the Maxwellian distribution of the target molecule kinetic energies for temperatures 30, 100, 300, and 1000 K. The cross sections are given for kinetic energies of the incident muonic atoms ranging from 0.001 to 100 eV in the laboratory frame.