Importance of Thomas single-electron transfer in fast p-He collisions

• We report experimental angular differential cross sections for nonradiative single-electron capture in p-He collisions (p + He -> H + He+) with a separate peak at the 0.47 mrad Thomas scattering angle for energies in the 1.3-12.5 MeV range. We find that the intensity of this peak scales with the projectile velocity as v(P)(-11). This constitutes the first experimental test of the prediction from 1927 by L. H. Thomas [Proc. R. Soc. 114, 561 (1927)]. At our highest energy, the peak at the Thomas angle contributes with 13.5% to the total integrated nonradiative single-electron capture cross section.

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NATURAL SCIENCES

NATURVETENSKAP

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