Electron stripping cross-sections for fast, low charge state uranium ions

Cross-sections for projectile electron loss for U10+ and U28+ colliding with H-2, N-2 and Ar were calculated using the n-body classical trajectory Monte-Carlo method. The calculations include electrons on both nuclear centers and all electron-electron and electron-nuclear interactions between centers. Multiple ionization is inherently included in these many-electron calculations. Overall, except for the H-2 target where the projectile stripping is overestimated by a factor of two, the calculated cross-sections are in reasonable accord with available data and the recent beam lifetime measurements from GSI-Darmstadt. For energies less than 100 MeV/u, the N-2 and Ar cross-sections do not scale as E-1.0 as predicted by one-electron theories. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.