Molecular model for annihilation rates in positron complexes

Abstract

The molecular approach for positron interaction with atoms is developed further. Potential energy curves for positron motion are obtained. Two procedures accounting for the nonadiabatic effective positron mass are introduced for calculating annihilation rate constants. The first one takes the bound-state energy eigenvalue as an input parameter. The second is a self-contained and self-consistent procedure. The methods are tested with quite different states of the small complexes HPs, e+He (electronic triplet) and e+Be (electronic singlet and triplet). For states yielding the positronium cluster, the annihilation rates are quite stable, irrespective of the accuracy in binding energies. For the e+Be states, annihilation rates are larger and more consistent with qualitative predictions than previously reported ones.