Principles of Quantum Scattering Theory

Preface, Acknowledgments, PART I The selected main principles and the basic theoretical frameworks for a non-relativistic quantum-mechanical theory of scattering, A Introduction, B The main physical features of collision problems, B.1 Recognizable reference points of scattering theory, C Universality of the scattering problem, C.1 Fundamental aspects of collision theory, C.2 Collisions in various branches of physics, C.3 Importance of collisions in atomic and molecular physics, C.4 Collisions and new sources of energy, C.5 Application of collisional phenomena in other sciences, C.6 Application of collision phenomena in technology, 1 The key features of quantum systems and the Kato conditions, 2 Time evolution of quantum systems, 3 The Schrodinger picture, 4 The Heisenberg picture, 5 The Dirac picture, 6 The Dyson perturbation expansion of the evolution operator, 7 Time-dependent scattering theory, 8 Time-independent scattering theory, 9 The problem of asymptotic convergence of scattering states, 10 The principle of detailed balance, 11 Convergence of series of operators, state vectors and matrix elements, 12 Recapitulation of the selected main principles of quantum scattering theory, 13 Summary to part I, PART II Selected applications of non-relativistic quantum scattering theory to energetic inelastic collisions of ions with atoms, 14 The physics of double scatterings, 15 The leading experimental methods for double scatterings, 16 The two main theoretical frameworks for ion–atom collisions from low to high energies, 17 Basic mechanisms behind elementary atomic processes, 18 Direct momentum matching, 19 Indirect momentum matching, 20 Dynamic electron correlations, 21 Thomas double scatterings of the active electron with two atomic nuclei, 22 The impulse hypothesis, 23 Drawbacks of the continuum distorted wave method and its `derivatives`, 24 Coulomb-Bom-type methods for electron detachment, 25 A variational unification of low- and high-energy methods, 26 Thomas-like dielectronic scatterings in transfer ionization, 27 Projectile and target merged cold beams for highly correlated events, 28 Thomas double scatterings of atoms in ion–molecule collisions, 29 Collisions of cold ions and Bose–Einstein condensates, 30 Fundamental reasons for the equivalence between the classical Thomas successive binary collisions and quantal double scatterings, 31 Multiple ionization in fast ion–atom and ion–molecule collisions, 32 Recapitulation on double scattering mechanisms, 33 The reasons for the inadequacy of the standard impulse approximation, 34 The reformulated impulse approximation (RIA), 35 An analytical calculation of the main scattering integral, 36 Correlated electronic dynamics at all energies, 37 Correct links between scattered waves and transition operator potentials, 38 Illustrations, 38.1 Computational methods, 38.1.1 Deterministic methods, 38.1.2 Stochastic methods, 38.2 Atomic collision problems, 39 Summary to part II, 40 Outlook, References, Index