Radiative capture and recombination in electron-atom collisions

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Abstract
A comprehensive theory of electron scattering from atoms and ions at high energies is formulated, incorporating the coupling of the scattering system to the radiation field. In particular, the photocapture process is discussed in detail, which can proceed either by a direct radiative capture or by dielectronic recombination following a radiationless capture into excited states. The latter process involves a collisional excitation of the inner-shell electrons of the target, followed by radiative decay of that excited state. The required sum over excitation probabilities to all the allowed bound states is estimated using the semiclassical projection operators and the single-particle model for the target system. A preliminary estimate of the cross sections for these modes of capture is obtained for the case of a hot-electron plasma interacting with highly ionized impurity ions.