Effect of vacuum polarization on the excitation of hydrogen atom by electron impact

Abstract

The vacuum polarization potential is included in the interaction Hamiltonian for 1S−2S excitation of the hydrogen atom by electron impact. The excitation amplitude calculated field theoretically is found to be lowered by 0.47t2/(t2+9)3 where t2=4|P−Q|2, P and Q being the momenta of the incident and scattered electrons respectively.

Keywords

• polarization potential
• atomic and molecular collisions.