Energy levels, electromagnetic transitions and annihilation of positronium in strong magnetic fields

Abstract

As a further application of the authors previous discussion of the general two-body problem in the presence of a homogeneous magnetic field, a quantitative investigation of the physical properties of positronium in super-strong magnetic fields is presented. They show that, in magnetic fields, the energy values and electromagnetic transitions rates of positronium can also be reduced by a scaling transformation to those obtained for the hydrogen atom in the limit of an infinite proton mass. Additionally, the annihilation process is considered, and the B dependence of the gamma decay rates is discussed. For magnetic fields B=2.35*1011 G and 4.70*1012 G these quantities are calculated in the adiabatic approximation and are presented explicitly for the lowest-lying states.