Eur. Phys. J. D (2014) 68: 255
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2014-40800-9

Regular Article

Interaction of positronium with helium atoms – the classical treatment of the 5-body collision system^*

¹ Institute for Nuclear Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Atomki), 4001 Debrecen, Hungary
² Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA

^a e-mail: tokesi@atomki.hu

Received: 15 December 2013
Received in final form: 10 April 2014
Published online: 24 September 2014

Abstract

The interaction between positronium and a helium atom is studied using the 5-body classical trajectory Monte Carlo method. We present the total cross sections for the dominant channels, namely for single ionization of the target, and ionization of the projectile, resulting from pure ionization and also from electron transfer (capture or loss) processes for 1–5.7 a.u. incident velocities of the positronium atom. Our results were compared with the calculated data using hydrogen projectiles having the same velocities as well as with the experimental data in collisions between H and He [R.D. DuBois, Á. Kövér, Phys. Rev. A 40, 3605 (1989)]. We analyze the similarities and deviations for ionization of helium atoms by positronium and hydrogen projectile impact.