Electron Clusters in Inert Gases

TL;DR

This paper investigates the unexpected behavior of electrons in dense inert gases, revealing that electrons remain nearly free despite conditions that would typically cause clustering, due to non-linear interaction effects.

Contribution

It provides a novel explanation for electron behavior in inert gases by accounting for non-linear electron-medium interactions, challenging previous polaronic clustering assumptions.

Findings

Electrons remain nearly free in dense inert gases despite increasing scattering length.

Non-linear electron-medium interactions prevent cluster formation.

The behavior varies with atomic number and medium density.

Abstract

The paper addresses counterintuitive behavior of electrons injected into dense cryogenic media with negative scattering length $a_0$. Instead of expected polaronic effect (formation of density enhancement clusters) which should substantially reduce the electron mobility, an opposite picture is observed: with increasing $|a_0|$ (the trend taking place for inert gases with the growth of atomic number) and the medium density, the electrons remain practically free. An explanation of this behaviour is provided based on consistent accounting for the non-linearity of electron interaction with the gaseous medium in the gas atom number density.