Sensitivity of Coulomb-explosion images to the shapes of molecular potentials: The case ofHe22+

A quantitative analysis of the results of a recent Coulomb-explosion experiment with ${\mathrm{He}}_2^{2+}$ is described. Using the adiabatic potential curve predicted for the ${}_{}{}^1{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathit{g}}^{+}{}_{}{}^{}$ ground state of this relatively simple dication, a Monte Carlo simulation of the Coulomb-explosion process was performed. The results show that such methods can faithfully reproduce the experimental results when accurate potential-energy surfaces are available. The implications for more complex systems are discussed.