Schwinger variational approach for Balmer- emission cross section in proton-hydrogen atom collision at intermediate and high impact energies

Abstract

Schwinger variational approach to the process of direct electronic excitation of atoms by impact of ions at intermediate and high impact energies was shown to be successful in predicting the excitation cross sections of ion-atom collisions [1,2]. In this study, we present a new method based on the fractional form of the Schwinger variational principle to evaluate the Balmer-α excitation cross sections σ (Hα) of hydrogen atom by proton impact. We study also in this work, the linear polarization fraction Π (Hα) (first Stokes parameter). For impact energies between 10 to 200 keV, our theoretical predictions stay globally in good agreement with the available experimental data [3-5] and other theoretical calculations [6-13].