Transfer ionization and its sensitivity to the ground-state wave function

TL;DR

This paper combines detailed theoretical calculations and experiments to study transfer ionization in H$^+$-He collisions, revealing the reaction mechanisms and their dependence on the initial-state wave function quality.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of fully differential cross sections for transfer ionization, highlighting the sensitivity to the initial-state wave function.

Findings

Identification of shake-off and two-step-2 mechanisms

High sensitivity of electron transfer to wave function quality

Agreement between experiment and theory at detailed level

Abstract

We present kinematically complete theoretical calculations and experiments for transfer ionization in H$^++$He collisions at 630 keV/u. Experiment and theory are compared on the most detailed level of fully differential cross sections in the momentum space. This allows us to unambiguously identify contributions from the shake-off and two-step-2 mechanisms of the reaction. It is shown that the simultaneous electron transfer and ionization is highly sensitive to the quality of a trial initial-state wave function.