Theoretical Study of Few-Body Processes

由于最近的新实验进展，碰撞物理学目前正处于一个令人难以置信的激动人心的时期。其中一个进步是COLTRIMS（冷目标反冲-离子动量光谱）方法，它可以用来获得碰撞过程的完整三维图像。这些3D图片包含了在原子水平上控制自然的基本力的非常详细的信息，理论的挑战是看看我们的理论模型是否能准确地预测实验观察到的东西。原子/分子的带电粒子电离是探测重要基本力最灵敏的方法之一。美国国家科学基金会资助的这项工作的目的是从理论上研究原子和分子的带电粒子电离领域的几个开放问题，包括三体和四体问题，以及电子撞击和重粒子撞击。该项目有几个更广泛的影响。(1)参与本项目的学生将学习分析和数值技术，这对学术界或工业界的职业生涯都很有价值。(2)本研究结果将在同行评议的主要期刊上广泛传播，并在科学会议上发表。(3)这一前沿研究将有助于为未来原子水平上相互作用的研究建立重要的基准，并将对一个具有重要基础意义的重要课题产生新的理论见解。(4)本工作将为至少8个实验实验室（美国2个、德国2个、英国1个、澳大利亚2个、中国1个）提供理论支持。(5)这项工作的一个组成部分是研究DNA组成成分中发生的过程，其长期目标是了解辐射损伤对生物DNA的影响。

Collision physics is currently enjoying an incredibly exciting time as a consequence of recent new experimental advances. One of these advances is the COLTRIMS (cold-target recoil-ion momentum spectroscopy) method which can be used to obtain full three-dimensional pictures of a collision process. These 3D pictures contain very detailed information about the fundamental forces controlling nature on the atomic level and the challenge for theory is to see if our theoretical models can accurately predict what is observed experimentally. One of the most sensitive probes of the important fundamental forces is charged particle ionization of atoms/molecules. The purpose of the NSF funded work is to theoretically examine several open questions in the field of charged particle ionization of atoms and molecules for both the 3-body and 4-body problems and for both electron-impact and heavy-particle impact.There are several broader impacts for the project. (1) The students who work on this project learn analytical and numerical techniques that are valuable for a career in either academia or industry. (2) The results of this research will be disseminated broadly in leading peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific conferences. (3) The cutting-edge research will help establish important benchmarks for future research on interactions at the atomic level and it will lead to new theoretical insight on an important topic of fundamental significance. (4) The work will provide theoretical support for at least eight experimental labs (2 NSF funded labs in the US, 2 in Germany, 1 in England, 2 in Australia, and 1 in China). (5) One component of the work is to investigate processes occurring in the constituent components of DNA with a long term objective to obtain an understanding of the effects of radiation damage on biological DNA.