Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 16: Atomic systems in external fields I

A 16.5: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 15:00–15:15, BAR 106

Alignment of atomic inner-shell vacancies following nuclear α decay — •Sean McConnell^1,2 and Andrey Surzhykov^1,2 — ¹Physikalisches Institut der Universität Heidelberg — ²GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt

The alpha decay of Polonium has the potential to induce the ionisation of any of the electrons initially bound to the nucleus. Should this process involve the ionisation of an electron from the L₃ sub-shell, the remaining hole may appear to be aligned. In order to estimate such an alignment, theoretical calculations were performed in Ref. [1] based, however, on solutions of the non-relativistic Schrödinger equation. Moreover, that work did not account for shake–off or recoil effects that may significantly influence the inner-shell ionisation process. In this contribution, we present a fully-relativistic description of the inner-shell ionisation with a special emphasis on the alignment of the residual atom. Our theoretical treatment includes not only nuclear shake-off effects and compensation for the realistic motion of the α particle as it escapes from the daughter Lead nucleus, but also accounts for electron screening effects. To understand better the role of these effects on the alignment of the 2p_3/2 vacancy, detailed calculations are performed for a wide range of common α particle energies and have been compared with previous data. We can demonstrate through our calculations, that as well as the aforementioned disregard of shake-off and recoil corrections among other important factors, non-negligible inaccuracies have surfaced in previous estimations of alignment.

[1] N M Kabachnik, J. Phys. B: At., Mol., Phys. 18(13) (1985) L423