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We show that information about quasimolecular electronic binding energies in transient atomic systems of Z=Z1+Z2 up to 184 can be obtained from three sources: (1) the impact-parameter dependence of the ionization probability; (2) the ionization probability in head-on collisions as a function of total nuclear charge Z; (3) the delta-electron spectrum in coincidence with K-vacancy formation in asymmetric collisions. Experiments are proposed and discussed.
The theory of direct electron-positron pair production in the collision of heavy ions is formulated in the framework of the quasimolecular model. The pair production process acquires a collective nature for (Z1+Z2)α>1 and can be understood as the shakeoff of the strong vacuum polarization cloud formed in the quasimolecule. The total cross section is, e.g., 76 μb for Pb + Pb at Coulomb barrier energies.
The energy shift of K electrons in heavy atoms due to the self-energy correction has been calculated. This process is treated to all orders in Zα, where Z denotes the nuclear charge. For the superheavy system Z=170, where the K-shell binding energy reaches the pair-production threshold (E1sb∼2mc2), a shift of +11.0 keV is found. This shift is almost cancelled by the vacuum polarization, leaving a negligible effect for all quantum-electrodynamical corrections of order α but all orders of Zα.
This Letter discusses inner-shell excitation in collisions of very heavy ions (Z1+Z2≳140) in the framework of the quasimolecular model. The importance of multistep excitations and of coupling between continuum states is demonstrated. The 1sσ vacancy probabilities resulting from coupled-channels calculations exceed perturbation theory by a factor 3-5, thus giving good agreement with recent experimental results.
Parity mixing of electron states should be extremely strong for heliumlike uranium. We calculate its size and discuss whether it could be determined experimentally. We analyze one specific scheme for such an experiment. The required laser intensities for two-photon spectroscopy of the 23P0–2 1S0level splitting is of the order of 1017 W/cm2. A determination of parity mixing would require at least 1021 W/cm2.
A careful investigation of different corrections to binding energies of electrons in almost critical fields is performed. We investigate quantitatively the influence of the nuclear charge parameters, nuclear mass, degree of ionization on the value of the critical charge of the nucleus. Rather qualitative arguments are given to establish the contribution of the quantumelectrodynamic corrections, which are found to be small. Some phenomenological modifications of QED are quantitatively investigated and found to be of negligible influence on the value of the critical field. For heavy ion collisions with Z1+Z2>Zcr the critical separations between ions are given as results of precise solutions of the relativistic two coulomb center problem. Corrections due to electron-electron interaction are considered. We find (with present theoretical accuracy) Zcr=173±2, in the heavy ion collisions Rcr(U-U) = 34.7±2 fm and Rcr (U-Cf)=47.7±2 fm. We shortly consider the possibility of spontaneous muon production in muonic supercritical fields.
We consider the contribution of nuclear polarization to the Lamb shift of K- and L-shell electrons in heavy atoms and quasiatoms. Our formal approach is based on the concept of effective photon propagators with nuclear-polarization insertions treating effects of nuclear polarization on the same footing as usual QED radiative corrections. We explicitly derive the modification of the photon propagator for various collective nuclear excitations and calculate the corresponding effective self-energy shift perturbatively. The energy shift of the 1s1/2 state in 92238U due to virtual excitation of nuclear rotational states is shown to be a considerable correction for atomic high-precision experiments. In contrast to this, nuclear-polarization effects are of minor importance for Lamb-shift studies in 82208Pb.
We investigate the influence of additional nonlinear terms in the Dirac Lagrangian on strongly bound electron states in heavy and superheavy atoms. Upper bounds for the coupling constants are deduced by comparison with precision spectroscopy data in QED. We demonstrate that nonlinear interactions may cause significant modifications of electron binding energies in superheavy quasiatomic systems which would not be visible in ordinary atomic-physics measurements.