Transfer ionization in fast ion-atom collisions: Four-body Born distorted-wave theory

The theory of transfer ionization in fast ion-atom collisions is investigated within the four-body distorted-wave formalism. The four-body Born distorted-wave (BDW-4B) method, which was originally introduced for double electron capture, is presently extended to transfer ionization. In the entrance and exit channel, the BDW-4B method coincides with the four-body versions of the boundary-corrected first Born and the continuum distorted wave approximations, respectively. An illustrative application of the present method is performed for the previously most studied case of transfer ionization in proton-helium collisions at intermediate and high energies (0.3–10 MeV). The obtained total cross sections are compared with all the available experimental data. Overall, very good agreement is found, particularly at high impact energies that are within the expected region of validity of the BDW-4B approximation.

Figure 1

Total cross sections $Q_{\mathit{if}}$ as a function of the laboratory impact energy $E$ for transfer ionization ${\mathrm{H}}^{+}+{}^4\mathrm{He}\to \mathrm{H}+{}^4{\mathrm{He}}^{2+}+e$. Theory: the post form of the BDW-4B method (solid line: present, $Q_{\mathit{if}}\equiv Q_{\mathit{if}}^{+}$). Experimental data: $•$ Shah and Gilbody [5], $\square$ Mergel et al. [7], and $\blacksquare$ Schmidt et al. [9].