On the projectile-electron loss in fast collisions withheavy atomic targets

Abstract

The projectile-electron excitation and loss processes areconsidered in collisions with heavy atomic targets in theintermediate-to-high-velocity regime. In order to describe theseprocesses we use the sudden and Glauber approximations. We showthat these approximations lead to the same results forelectronic cross sections. We estimated cross sections for thetotal loss from H and He+ projectiles. Our resultsfavour the interpretation of the total electron loss as aprocess where the projectile-electron interaction with thescreened heavy target nucleus dominates over the antiscreeningmode.