Stability and collision dynamics of electron–proton in dense semi-classical hydrogen plasma

Abstract

Fully quantum mechanical calculations have been carried out to investigate the properties of bound states and collision dynamics of an electron–proton system embedded in dense semi-classical plasmas. In particular, the investigation includes the stability of the hydrogen atom and the dynamics of electron scattering from a proton for a wide range of plasma parameters. The interaction between the electron and proton is modeled by a pseudopotential which takes care of the quantum mechanical effects of diffraction at short distances as well as the collective effect at large distances. A large basis set is employed in the Rayleigh–Ritz variational principle to study the stability of the hydrogen atom. On the other hand, the Schwinger variational method in the momentum space is applied to perform a detailed study on the scattering process. Particular emphasis is made to investigate the scattering dynamics at low energies. Scattering length has been calculated quite accurately to explore the phenomenon of zero-energy resonance. Furthermore, effects of diffraction and effects of screening on the scattering length, full cross section, and transport cross section have been investigated in detail.