Positronium formation in positron-atom collisions at intermediate energies

Abstract

The formation of ground-state positronium in collisions of positrons with hydrogen and helium atoms is considered within the distorted-wave Born approximation. In particular the authors analyse the eikonal and continuum-distorted-wave models in both their post and prior forms. Differential and total cross sections are calculated over a broad range of intermediate energies extending from 40 to 500 eV. The results confirm that the total cross section decreases rapidly with increasing energy, as predicted by the simple first Born approximation, and do not agree with experimental evidence of a slower decay. The computed total cross sections for helium targets agree with those of the close-coupling model for energies above 100 eV. Below 100 eV the authors find a large post-prior discrepancy. The calculated differential cross sections show evidence of a Thomas peak at high energies for the CDW models but not for the eikonal models.