The interaction between the projectile and the target core in single ionization of helium by 100 MeV/u C$^{6+}$ and 1 GeV/u U$^{92+}$ ions

TL;DR

This paper investigates single ionization of helium by high-energy highly charged ions, modeling it as a three-body problem, and finds that deviations from Coulomb interaction have limited impact unless the transverse momentum transfer is large.

Contribution

It introduces a three-body model for helium ionization by fast highly charged ions and assesses the effect of non-Coulomb interactions on ionization outcomes.

Findings

Deviations from Coulomb law have weak effects unless transverse momentum transfer is large.

Accounting for non-Coulomb interactions does not improve agreement with experimental data.

The model clarifies the role of projectile-target core interactions in ionization processes.

Abstract

We consider single ionization of helium by fast highly charged ions. The ionization is treated as a three-body problem which involves the 'active' target electron, the target core (consisting of the target nucleus and the 'passive' target electron) and the projectile-ion. We show that, unless the transverse momentum transfer in the collision is large, the deviation of the interaction between the projectile and the target core from the purely coulomb law has a weak effect on the ionization. In particular, the account of this deviation does not enable one to get an agreement with experimental data on the fully differential cross section for the electron emission into the so called perpendicular plane.