INELASTIC AND SUPERELASTIC SCATTERING OF ELECTRONS FROM SODIUM - BEHAVIOR OF POLARIZATION AND CORRELATION PARAMETERS FOR THE 3S-3P TRANSITION IN A BROAD ANGULAR RANGE

Recent experimental results of the NIST, Flinders and Munster groups on superelastic scattering of intermediate-energy polarized electrons from laser-excited polarized and unpolarized sodium atoms have been analyzed theoretically together with those on inelastic scattering data. Based on the Persival-Seaton hypothesis specific model-independent relations between correlation and polarization parameters measured in superelastic scattering experiments of different types have been suggested. The differential cross section as well as the parameters L perpendicular-to, L perpendicular-to S(T), gamma, r, and SBAR(A)(J) for the 3(2)S if-and-only-if 3(2)P transition in a broad range of scattering angels have been calculated within the distorted-wave approximation. Problem of constructing the e + Na optical potential is discussed.