Energy and angular distributions of detached electrons in a solvable model of ion-atom collisions

Electron energy and angular distributions are computed for a model of atom–negative-ion collisions. In this model, electron-atom interactions are represented by zero-range potentials in an approximation where two identical atoms move along straight-line classical trajectories in head-on collisions. Analytic expressions for the ionization amplitudes are interpreted in terms of Sturmian eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. At high velocity, the computed distributions exhibit direct excitation and continuum capture cusps in addition to the binary encounter ridge. At low velocities, a single feature corresponding to an electron distribution centered midway between the target and projectile emerges. For initial conditions corresponding to gerade symmetry a single broad peak appears, while for ungerade symmetry there is a node at the midpoint so that the peak splits into two parts. It is confirmed that the advanced adiabatic approximation gives an accurate description of the ungerade distribution at low and intermediate velocities.