Classical treatment of the electron emission from collisions of uracil molecules with fast protons

Abstract

The electron emission from the uracil molecule induced by fast proton impact has been investigated using the classical-trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) method. Applying the independent-particle model, the full three-body dynamics of the projectile, an active electron, and the molecule core is considered. The interactions with the molecule core are described by a multicenter potential built from screened atomic potentials. Double and single differential, as well as total ionization cross sections are calculated and compared with the predictions of the first Born approximation with correct boundary conditions (CB1), the continuum-distorted-wave--eikonal-initial-state (CDW-EIS) approach, as well as the combined classical-trajectory Monte Carlo--classical over-the-barrier (CTMC-COB) model. The effect of the molecular treatment of the ionization by the multicenter potential is analyzed by simplified CTMC calculations in which the ionization cross section of the uracil is determined as a linear combination of the contributions of the constituent atoms of the molecule.