Ionization of helium by slow antiproton impact: Total and differential cross sections

Abstract

We investigate theoretically the single and double ionization of the He atom by antiproton impact for projectile energies ranging from 3 keV up to 1000 keV. We obtain accurate total cross sections by directly solving the fully correlated two-electron time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The cross sections are in excellent agreement with the available experimental data. We also present fully ab initio doubly differential data for single ionization at 10 and 100 keV impact energies and compare to classical-trajectory Monte Carlo calculations. In these differential cross sections we identify the binary-encounter peak along with the anticusp minimum. Furthermore, we also point out the importance of the postcollisional electron-projectile interaction at low antiproton energies, which significantly suppresses electron emission in the forward direction.