Canadian Journal of Physics
Cross section for photoionization of the positronium negative ion at the lowest Feshbach resonance
Allen Paine Mills
Abstract
The photoionization cross section for the positronium (Ps) negative ion, Ps−, at the lowest n = 2 Feshbach resonance, estimated by neglecting the influences of the weakly bound outer electron, is σF = 1.4 × 10−12 cm2, about 3 × 103 times the existing lower limit calculated by Igarashi and co-workers (New J. Phys. 2, 17 (2000)). Although the estimated cross section is 200 times smaller than the analogous cross section for photoexcitation of the Ps Lyman-α transition, including the effect of the broad line width of the resonance shows it will be feasible to observe this resonance to obtain precision information about the three body Ps− system.