Abstract
A 'combined' analytic theory of classical excitation of hydrogenic atoms and ions by charged particles is presented: it is valid for all energy transfers at sufficiently high incident particle velocity. The theory reduces to the binary encounter or classical impulse approximation and to an adiabatic dipole perturbation theory in their respective ranges of validity. The combined theory agrees reasonably well with published Monte Carlo trajectory calculations. It is confirmed that adiabatic effects are a major defect of binary encounter theory. The energy transfer distribution for fixed impact parameter is studied.