Atomic collisions offer some unique opportunities to study atomic structure and reaction mechanisms in experiment and theory, especially for projectiles of high atomic number provided by modern accelerators. The book is meant as an introduction into the field and provides some basic theoretical understanding of the atomic processes occurring when a projectile hits another atom. It also furnishes the tools for a mathematical description, however, without going deeper into the technical details, which can be found in the literature given. With this aim, the focus is on reactions, in which only a single active electron participates. Collisional excitation, ionization and charge transfer are discussed for collision velocities ranging from slow to comparable to the speed of light. For the highest projectile velocities, energy can be converted into mass, so that electron-positron pairs are created. In addition to the systematic treatment, a theoretical section specializes on electron-electron correlations and three chapters are devoted to selected highlights bordering to surface science and to physics with antiprotons. * Simple access to the theory of collisions between ions and atoms * Systematic treatment of basic features needed for an understanding * Mathematical details are omitted and referred to references * In order to bear out the essential ideas most clearly, a single active electron is assumed in most cases * In selected examples, theoretical results are confronted with experiment * Discussion supported by a large number of illustrations * Selected highlights in borderline fields are presented

One of the Top Selling Physics Books according to YBP Library Services Suitable for graduate students, experienced researchers, and experts, this book provides a state-of-the-art review of the non-relativistic theory of high-energy ion-atom collisions. Special attention is paid to four-body interactive dynamics through the most important theoretical methods available to date by critically analyzing their foundation and practical usefulness relative to virtually all the relevant experimental data. Fast ion-atom collisions are of paramount importance in many high-priority branches of science and technology, including accelerator-based physics, the search for new sources of energy, controlled thermonuclear fusion, plasma research, the earth’s environment, space research, particle transport physics, therapy of cancer patients by heavy ions, and more. These interdisciplinary fields are in need of knowledge about many cross sections and collisional rates for the analyzed fast ion-atom collisions, such as single ionization, excitation, charge exchange, and various combinations thereof. These include two-electron transitions, such as double ionization, excitation, or capture, as well as simultaneous electron transfer and ionization or excitation and the like—all of which are analyzed in depth in this book. Quantum Theory of High-Energy Ion-Atom Collisions focuses on multifaceted mechanisms of collisional phenomena with heavy ions and atoms at non-relativistic high energies.

This is the first paperback edition of a classic, enduring work. Volume I describes various aspects of the one-body collision problem. Volume II covers many-body problems and applications of theory to electron collisions with atoms, collisions between atomic systems, nuclear collisions, and two-body collisions under relativistic conditions. The use of time-dependent perturbation theory is also discussed.

With the advent of heavy-ion reactions, nuclear physics has acquired a new frontier. The new heavy-ion sources operating at electrostatic accelerators and the high-energy experiments performed at Berkeley, Dubna, Manchester and Orsay, have opened up the field, and have shown us impressive new prospects. The new accelerators now under construction at Berlin, Daresbury and Darmstadt, as well as those under consideration (GANIL, Oak Ridge, etc. ) are expected to add significantly to our knowledge and understanding of nuclear properties. This applies not only to such exotic topics as the existence and lifetimes of superheavy elements, or the possibil ity of shock waves in nuclei, but also to such more mundane issues as high-spin states, new regions of deformed nuclei and friction forces. The field promises not only to produce a rich variety of interesting phenomena, but also to have wide-spread theoretical implications. Heavy-ion reactions are characterized by the large masses of the fragments, as well as the high total energy and the large total angular momentum typically involved in the collision. A purely quantum-mechanical description of such a collision process may be too complicated to be either possible or inter esting. We expect and, in some cases,know that the classical limit, the limit of geometrical optics, a quantum-statistical or a hydrodynamical description correctly account for typical features.

During the last two decades the explorations of di?erent processes accom- nyingion–atom collisions athigh-impactenergieshavebeenasubjectofmuch interest. This interest was generated not only by the advent of accelerators of relativistic heavy ions which enabled one to investigate these collisions in an experiment and possible applications of obtained results in other ?elds of physics, but also by the variety of physical mechanisms underlying the atomic collisional phenomena at high impact energies. Often highly charged projectiles produced at accelerators of heavy ions are not fully stripped ions but carry one or more very tightly bound el- trons. In collisions with atomic targets, these electrons can be excited or lost and this may occur simultaneously with electronic transitions in the target. The present book concentrates on, and may serve as an introduction to, th- retical methods which are used to describe the projectile–electron transitions occurringinhigh-energycollisionsbetweenionsandneutralatoms.Special- tention is given to relativistic impact energies and highly charged projectiles. Experimental results are used merely as illustrations and tests for theory. This book will be useful to graduate students and professional scientists who are interested in studying atomic collisions occurring at high-impact - ergies. It assumes that the reader possesses the basic knowledge in classical electrodynamics and nonrelativistic and relativistic quantum mechanics.

If a heavy particle ion (atom, molecule, muon) collides with another in the gas phase at speeds approaching the speed of light, the time-dependent Dirac equation equation must be used for its description, including quantum electro-dynamic, special relativity and magnetic coupling effects. In this book we study one electron in the variety of rearrangement collisions: radiative and non-radiative capture, ionization, capture by pair (one electron, one positron) production and antihydrogen production. Our relativistic continuum distorted-wave theory accounts extremely well for the simultaneous behaviour of the electron with respect to the nuclear charges of the projectile and the target. This is the first book developed in this subject. Containing many diagrams and tables, and fully referenced, it goes beyond chapters in previous books. The relativistic continuum distorted-wave theory developed by the authors group, is shown to be fully Hermitean. Detailed mathematics are provided in nine appendices.

Introduction. Part I: Theoretical Methods. Relativistic Kinematics. Fields of Moving Charges. Relativistic Electron Motion. Ion-Atom Collisions. Part II: Elementary Atomic Processes. Excitation and Ionization. Ionization-Many Electrons. Charge Exchange. Radiative Electron Capture. Electron-Positron Pair Production. Part III: Experimental Methods. Charge-State Preparation. Target Arrangements. Cross Section Determination. Appendix. Bibliography. Index.

An understanding of the collisions between micro particles is of great importance for the number of fields belonging to physics, chemistry, astrophysics, biophysics etc. The present book, a theory for electron-atom and molecule collisions is developed using non-relativistic quantum mechanics in a systematic and lucid manner. The scattering theory is an essential part of the quantum mechanics course of all universities. During the last 30 years, the author has lectured on the topics presented in this book (collisions physics, photon-atom collisions, electron-atom and electron-molecule collisions, "electron-photon delayed coincidence technique", etc.) at many institutions including Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, The University of Western Ontario, Canada, and The Meerut University, India. The present book is the outcome of those lectures and is written to serve as a textbook for post-graduate and pre-PhD students and as a reference book for researchers.