Neutralization and Detachment in H⁺--H^- Collisions

The cross sections for neutralization and detachment in H⁺--H^- collisions in the energy range from 1.0 to 100keV/u are calculated using the two-centre atomic orbital close-coupling (TC-AOCC) method. The results are compared with the available experimental and theoretical data. It is found that the
neutralization cross section agrees well with the experimental data by Schon et al. J. Phys. B 20 (1987) L759 and Melchert et al., J. Phys. B 32 (1999) L139 especially at low energies. However, for the detachment process, our calculated cross section lies between the experimental data by Melchert et al. and by Peart et al. J. Phys. B 9 (1976) 3047 for the energy below 15keV/u. Above this energy, our result is smaller than the two experimental data. It is worth pointing out that there exists a large difference between these two experimental data and it is difficult to judge which data is more accurate.
Therefore, a high-precision measurement for detachment cross sections is expected to resolve this discrepancy and to test the theoretical calculations.