Radiative electron capture in relativistic heavy-ion atom collisions

Abstract

Based on systematic experimental studies and on exact relativistic calculations of the REC process in relativistic heavy-ion atom collisions, the limits of applicability of the nonrelativistic dipole approximation are discussed. In particular, direct comparison between a general REC scaling law and all available total electron-capture cross sections related to REC into bare and H-like ions is given. Similar to K-REC, a fortuitous agreement between the nonrelativistic approach and the experimental data is found. Moreover, the results of a dedicated L-REC experiment are presented, where this process was investigated for energy-resolved subshells. The measured angular distributions for REC into the j = 1 2 and j = 3 2 levels are in excellent agreement with exact relativistic calculations and manifest a complete breakdown of the nonrelativistic theory.