Eur. Phys. J. D (2015) 69: 132
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2015-60037-4

Regular Article

Bound state properties and photodetachment of the negatively charged hydrogen ions

Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6H 5B7, Canada

^a e-mail: afrolov@uwo.ca

Received: 19 January 2015
Received in final form: 13 March 2015
Published online: 15 May 2015

Abstract

Absorption of infrared and visible radiation from stellar emission spectra by the negatively charged hydrogen ions H⁻ is considered. The explicit formula for the photodetachment cross-section of the negatively charged hydrogen ion(s) is derived. Photodetachemnt cross-sections of the ${\mathrm{\infty }}^{}$H⁻, ${\mathrm{3}}^{}$H⁻ (or T⁻), ${\mathrm{2}}^{}$H⁻ (or D⁻) and ${\mathrm{1}}^{}$H⁻ ions are determined to high accuracy and for a large number of photo-electron momenta/energies. We introduce criteria which can be used to evaluate the overall quality of highly accurate wave functions of the hydrogen ion(s). One of these criteria is based on highly accurate calculations of the lowest order QED corrections in the negatively charged hydrogen ions, including ${\mathrm{1}}^{}$H⁻ (protium), ${\mathrm{2}}^{}$H⁻ (deuterium), ${\mathrm{3}}^{}$H⁻ (tritium) and model ion with the infinitely heavy nucleus ${\mathrm{\infty }}^{}$H⁻. An effective approach has been developed to calculate three-body integrals with the Bessel functions of different orders. Some preliminary evaluations of the phototdetachment cross-sections of the negatively charged hydrogen ions are performed. Inverse bremsstrahlung in the field of the neutral hydrogen atom is briefly discussed.