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令人难以置信的激动时刻。 其中一项进展是COLTRIMS（冷靶反冲离子动量谱）方法，该方法可用于获得碰撞过程的完整三维图像。 这些3D图片包含了关于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可以准确地预测实验观察到的情况。 原子/分子的带电粒子电离是对重要基本力最敏感的探测之一。 美国国家科学基金会资助的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碰撞和重粒子碰撞。该项目有几个更广泛的影响。 (1)谁在这个项目工作的学生学习分析和数值技术，无论是在学术界或工业界的职业生涯是有价值的。 (2)这项研究的结果将在领先的同行评审期刊上广泛传播，并在科学会议上发表。(3)前沿研究将有助于为未来原子水平上的相互作用研究建立重要的基准，并将导致对一个具有根本意义的重要课题的新的理论见解。(4)这项工作将为至少8个实验室（美国2个NSF资助实验室，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调查DNA组成部分中发生的过程，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.