Charged Hydrogenic, Helium and Helium-Hydrogenic Molecular Chains in a Strong Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This paper classifies charged hydrogenic, helium, and mixed chains in strong magnetic fields, revealing the maximum sizes of stable chains and ions possible under such extreme conditions.

Contribution

It provides a non-relativistic classification of charged molecular chains in magnetic fields up to 10^{16} G, identifying the maximum lengths and types of stable chains and ions.

Findings

Longest hydrogenic chains contain up to five protons.

Helium chains can have up to four alpha particles.

Two-electron chains are generally more bound than one-electron chains.

Abstract

A non-relativistic classification of charged molecular hydrogenic, helium and mixed helium-hydrogenic chains with one or two electrons which can exist in a strong magnetic field $B \lesssim 10^{16} $G is given. It is shown that for both $1e-2e$ cases at the strongest studied magnetic fields the longest hydrogenic chain contains at most five protons indicating to the existence of the $\rm{H}_5^{4+}$ and $\rm{H}_5^{3+}$ ions, respectively. In the case of the helium chains the longest chains can exist at the strongest studied magnetic fields with three and four $\al-$particles for $1e-2e$ cases, respectively. For mixed helium-hydrogenic chains the number of heavy centers can reach five for highest magnetic fields studied. In general, for a fixed magnetic field two-electron chains are more bound than one-electron ones.