Quantum Mechanical Effects on Elastic Electron-Ion Collisions in Dense, High-Temperature Plasmas Using the Eikonal Approximation

Abstract

Eikonal approximation is applied to investigate the elastic electron-ion collisions in dense high -temperature plasmas. The longitudinal dielectric function is applied to describe the interaction potential in dense, high-temperature plasmas. The straight-line trajectory approximation is applied to the motion of the projectile electron in order to investigte the variation of the eikonal phase as a function of impact parameter and plasma parameters. The results show that the eikonal differential elastic cross section substantially decrease with the increase of the velocity ratio [overbar]v(vT/v), i.e., increasing the electron thermal velocity. For a given velocity ratio, the eikonal cross section is increasing with the including the quantum mechanical effects. It is also found that the maximum position of the eikonal differential elastic cross section has receded from the target ion core as the velocity ratio [overbar]v decrease.