Kinetics of low-temperature gas of hydrogen-like atoms in an external electromagnetic field

Abstract

A microscopic approach for the construction of the kinetic theory of low-temperature hydrogen-like gases in an external electromagnetic field was developed. The approach is based on the formulation of secondary quantization in the presence of bound states of particles. It is suggested that the bound state (for example, a hydrogen-like atom of alkali metal) is formed by two charged fermions of different sorts — the valence electron and the ion core. The reduced description of relaxation processes establishes the basis for the formulation of the kinetic equations. Within the developed theoretical framework, the system of kinetic equations for Wigner’s distribution functions of free fermions of both sorts and their bound states, hydrogen-like atoms, is developed accounting for an external and self-consistent (intermediate) fields acting on the system. The obtained equations of motion for Wigner’s distribution functions serve as a basis for analyzing non-equilibrium effects and phenomena related to the influence of an external electromagnetic field on low-temperature gases of alkali metals.