Positronium formation in e+ plus H- collisions

Abstract

Cross sections for positronium formation by capture from the negative hydrogen ion are given. Orthogonalization corrections to the Coulomb (First) Born Approximation (CBA) differential and total cross sections are calculated using approximate H- wave functions of both Lowdin and Chandrasekhar. Various methods of orthogonalizing the unbound projectile to the possible bound states are considered. It is found that treating the atomic nuclei as if they were isotopic spin projections of a single type of nucleon gives cross sections that are an improvement over the CBA.