Energy and angular distributions of electrons emitted in proton collisions with molecular hydrogen

Abstract

The description of experimental data on energy and angular distributions of electrons produced in intermediate-energy proton collisions with ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ has remained an insurmountable problem for over five decades. A coupled-channel method is developed that provides an accurate solution to the problem. The doubly differential cross section as a function of the energy and angle of the ejected electron is calculated. Excellent agreement between the present results and the experimental data is found. This breakthrough in theoretical modeling of differential ionization in $p+{\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ collisions paves the way to accurate description of the recent kinematically complete experiments.