A method for constructing radial wave packets with application to target distortion in electron-atom collisions

Abstract

It has been shown that an analysis of radial stationary state wave functions of a particle in terms of their loops leads to such continuous, single-valued and finite functions which represent a practically convenient form of the radial wave packets of that particle at various positions. The radial wave packets have been used to investigate target distortion in electron-atom collisions. The distortion of the target is defined in terms of quantum-mechanical probabilities given by the wave packets. A closed expression which depends upon the position of the colliding electron, is obtained for the potential energy of the target in the field of the colliding electron.