Electron scattering from hydrogen: Collisions in which the total spin quantum numbers change

Abstract

In several recent experiments in which spin-polarized electrons were scattered from hydrogen atoms the investigators isolated the spin-exchange effects which arise in the theory from the antisymmetrization of the wave functions of the electrons. Noting the recent advances in techniques of producing and detecting polarized electrons, this paper considers the possibility of finding the terms in the effective transition operator that are spin dependent. The spin-dependent parts of the first Born term in the transverse photon and the instantaneous photon are calculated. The $1s\ensuremath{-}1s$, $1s\ensuremath{-}2s$, and $1s\ensuremath{-}2p$ scattering amplitudes are discussed specifically. A brief comparison is made of the magnitude of these effects and the accuracy of the present experiments.