NORMALIZATION OF CROSS SECTIONS FOR CHARGE-TRANSFER COLLISIONS PRODUCING METASTABLE (2S) HYDROGEN ATOMS

Reported measurements of the cross section for the production of metastable hydrogen atoms in the 2S state are compared to theoretical predictions for charge-transfer collisions between protons and helium and atomic hydrogen. The magnitudes of the cross sections for some of the experimental data are arbitrarily adjusted to produce a consistent energy dependence of the reaction cross sections. Agreement between recent theoretical predictions and experiment is then found to be excellent, leading to the conclusion that for these excited-state charge-transfer reactions, the Born approximation is not a valid description, even at projectile energies above 100 keV. © 1969 The American Physical Society.