Further study of the Over-Barrier Model to compute charge exchange processes

Abstract

In this paper we study theoretically the process of electron capture between one-optical-electron atoms (e.g. hydrogenlike or alkali atoms) and ions at low-to-medium impact velocities ($v/v_e \approx 1$) working on a modification of an already developed classical In this work we present an improvement over the Over Barrier Model (OBM) described in a recent paper [F. Sattin, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 62}, 042711 (2000)]. We show that: i) one of the two free parameters there introduced actually comes out consistently from the starting assumptions underlying the model; ii) the modified model thus obtained is as much accurate as the former one. Furthermore, we show that OBMs are able to accurately predict some recent results of state selective electron capture, at odds with what previously supposed.

RevTeX, 7 pages, 4 eps figures. To appear in Physical Review A (2001-september issue)