Ionization of highly charged relativistic ions by neutral atoms and ions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the ionization processes of highly charged relativistic ions by neutral atoms and ions, using advanced computational methods to analyze outer shell ionization and providing formulas for non-relativistic approximations.

Contribution

It introduces new computational results based on relativistic Born and equivalent-photon approximations, along with formulas for non-relativistic reduction of Dirac matrix-elements for arbitrary quantum states.

Findings

Outer shell ionization dominates the process.

Non-relativistic Schrödinger wave functions are sufficient for outer shell analysis.

Derived formulas for non-relativistic reduction applicable to arbitrary quantum numbers.

Abstract

Ionization of highly charged relativistic ions by neutral atoms and ions is considered. Numerical results of recently developed computer codes based on the relativistic Born and the equivalent-photon approximations are presented. The ionization of the outer shells dominate. For the outer projectile electron shells, which give the main contribution to the process, the non-relativistic Schr\"odinger wave functions can be used. The formulae for the non-relativistic reduction of the Dirac matrix-elements are obtained for ionization of electrons with arbitrary quantum numbers $n$ and $\ell$.