Related Experiment Videos
Are crossings of energy levels and charge exchange really quantum phenomena?
Oks1
1Physics Department, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|September 6, 2000
Abstract:
Electron terms in the field of two stationary Coulomb centers (TCC) of charges Z and Z' can have crossings and quasicrossings. A quasicrossing, by enhancing charge exchange, can result in a dip in the spectral line profile emitted by a Z ion from a plasma consisting of both Z and Z' ions. The paradigm is that all of the above are inherently quantum phenomena. Here we disprove this paradigm. Based on first principles without model assumptions, we present a purely classical description of both the level crossings in the TCC problem and the dips in the spectral line profiles.