High-Energy Atomic Physics

✍ Scribed by Evgeny G. Drukarev, A.I. Mikhailov (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer International Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 392
• Series: Springer Series on Atomic, Optical, and Plasma Physics 93
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This self-contained text introduces readers to the field of high-energy atomic physics - a new regime of photon-atom interactions in which the photon energies significantly exceed the atomic or molecular binding energies, and which opened up with the recent advent of new synchrotron sources.

From a theoretical point of view, a small-parameter characteristic of the bound system emerged, making it possible to perform analytic perturbative calculations that can in turn serve as benchmarks for more powerful numerical computations. The first part of the book introduces readers to the foundations of this new regime and its theoretical treatment. In particular, the validity of the small-parameter perturbation expansion and of the lowest-order approximation is critically reviewed. The following chapters then apply these insights to various atomic processes, such as photoionization as a many-body problem, dominant mechanisms for the production of ions at higher energies, Compton scattering and ionization accompanied by creation of e-e+ pairs, and the photoionization of endohedral atoms (e.g. fullerene). Last but not least, the computationally challenging transitions in the electron shell during certain types of nuclear decays are investigated in detail.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xiii
Introduction: What Is This Book About?....Pages 1-6
Box of Tools....Pages 7-24
Perturbation Theory....Pages 25-50
Singularities of Amplitudes and Wave Functions....Pages 51-79
The Coulomb Field. Nonrelativistic Case....Pages 81-114
The Coulomb Field. Relativistic Case....Pages 115-155
Photoionization of Atoms....Pages 157-201
Ionization and Excitation by Photon Impact at Higher Energies....Pages 203-229
Double Photoionization and Related Processes....Pages 231-290
Photoionization of Endohedral Atoms....Pages 291-321
Annihilation of Positrons with Atomic Electrons....Pages 323-344
Nuclear Transitions and the Electron Shell....Pages 345-382
Back Matter....Pages 383-384

✦ Subjects

Atomic/Molecular Structure and Spectra;Quantum Physics;Atoms and Molecules in Strong Fields, Laser Matter Interaction;Numerical and Computational Physics