arXiv subjects

T. A. Heim

Publications and source records attributed to T. A. Heim.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2000

Coherent and incoherent atomic scattering: Formalism and application to pionium interacting with matter

The experimental determination of the lifetime of pionium provides a very important test on chiral perturbation theory. This quantity is determined in the DIRAC experiment at CERN. In the analysis of this experiment, the breakup probabilities of of pionium in matter are needed to high accuracy as a theoretical input. We study in detail the influence of the target electrons. They contribute through screening and incoherent effects. We use Dirac-Hartree- Fock-Slater wavefunctions in order to determine the corresponding form factors. We find that the inner-shell electrons contribute less than the weakly bound outer electrons. Furthermore, we establish a more rigorous estimate for the magnitude of the contributions form the transverse current (magnetic terms thus far neglected in the calculations).

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv1999

Alternative sets of hyperspherical harmonics: Satisfying cusp conditions through frame transformations

By extending the concept of Euler-angle rotations to more than three dimensions, we develop the systematics under rotations in higher-dimensional space for a novel set of hyperspherical harmonics. Applying this formalism, we determine all pairwise Coulomb interactions in a few-body system without recourse to multipole expansions. Our approach combines the advantages of relative coordinates with those of the hyperspherical description. In the present method, each Coulomb matrix element reduces to the ``1/r'' form familiar from the two-body problem. Consequently, our calculation accounts for all the cusps in the wave function whenever an interparticle separation vanishes. Unlike a truncated multipole expansion, the calculation presented here is exact. Following the systematic development of the procedure for an arbitrary number of particles, we demonstrate it explicitly with the simplest nontrivial example, the three-body system.

physics.atm-clus↗

arXiv1999

Geometry and symmetries of multi-particle systems

The quantum dynamical evolution of atomic and molecular aggregates, from their compact to their fragmented states, is parametrized by a single collective radial parameter. Treating all the remaining particle coordinates in d dimensions democratically, as a set of angles orthogonal to this collective radius or by equivalent variables, bypasses all independent-particle approximations. The invariance of the total kinetic energy under arbitrary d-dimensional transformations which preserve the radial parameter gives rise to novel quantum numbers and ladder operators interconnecting its eigenstates at each value of the radial parameter. We develop the systematics and technology of this approach, introducing the relevant mathematics tutorially, by analogy to the familiar theory of angular momentum in three dimensions. The angular basis functions so obtained are treated in a manifestly coordinate-free manner, thus serving as a flexible generalized basis for carrying out detailed studies of wavefunction evolution in multi-particle systems.

physics.atm-clus↗