Coulomb Rydberg electron L-mixing in collisions with atomic ions

Abstract

The cross sections of the Rydberg electron L-mixing in a hydrogen atom and a hydrogen-like ion are calculated for slow collisions with atomic ions H*(n, L) + A+ = H*(n, L′) + A+ without variation of the principal quantum number n. The probability of the L-mixing L → L′ is associated with the quantum interference of the wave functions of adiabatic states, i.e., with the mixing of the time phases of these functions exp(−i∫Ek (t)dt). The effective cross section of such L-mixing for the states with n = 28 are 4–5 orders of magnitude greater than the cross sections determined in previous investigations. The expansion coefficients of spherical Coulomb wave functions in terms of parabolic ones and vice versa, which are necessary for determining cross sections, are calculated on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the spatial properties of these functions.