Orthogonal Channel Projections in High-Energy Ion-Atom Collisions with Electron Exchanges

Abstract

Approximately orthogonal channel projection operators are constructed for the charge-exchange processes in ion-atom collisions at high energies. The adiabatically perturbed stationary-state wave functions are suitably modified to take into account the motion of the heavy cores to which electrons are bound. By proper adjustment of the phase factors, it is shown that the orthogonality property between states in the modified set can be maintained. The resulting projection operators are mutually orthogonal everywhere in the configuration space, and satisfy the asymptotic requirements to first order in the electron-ion mass ratio. Single asymmetric and symmetric charge exchanges as well as double exchanges are studied in some detail, but no actual applications are given.