The Dynamics of Heavy-Ion Collisions

Abstract

To obtain information on the behaviour of electron states in strong fields using heavy-ion collisions as a tool, a full understanding of the scattering dynamics is essential. In this chapter a comprehensive discussion of the formalism required to describe electronic transitions in heavy-ion scattering is presented. It is first based on a classical picture of the nuclear motion, subsequently the language of quantum mechanics is used. A special section is devoted to the problem of collisions with nuclear contact. Collisions of this kind which lead to a prolonged interaction time are found to have the desired effect of enhancing selectively the process of spontaneous positron creation.