Electron and positron impact differential cross sections for the (e,2e) process on water molecule

Abstract

We present a theoretical study for electron and positron-impact ionization of water molecule by using the three-body formalism of distorted-wave approximation. In this approximation, the final state contains one-Coulomb, two-Coulomb, and three-Coulomb distortion due to pairwise Coulombic interactions, respectively. In the entrance channel, the initial state is a product of two wavefunctions: the first one for the incident electron/positron described by a Coulomb wave and the second one for the ten bound electrons. The molecular wavefunction for these bound electrons of H2O are described by the linear combination of atomic orbitals. We investigate the angular distribution of the triple differential cross section (TDCS) for single ionization of the outer orbitals 1b1,3a1,1b2, and 2a1. The structure with two peaks around the binary and recoil region are clearly observed for 1b1, 3a1, and 1b2 orbitals. At the same time, a single peak in the binary region with no recoil peak is found for the 2a1 orbital. The present TDCS results are compared with available experimental and theoretical findings. Fair agreement regarding the structure of angular profile of the TDCS is observed for all orbitals except 2a1. Finally, an enhanced TDCS have been found for positron impact compared to the electron impact.