{"id":191922,"date":"2024-06-27T02:27:14","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T07:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/new-calculation-approach-allows-more-accurate-predictions-of-how-atoms-ionize-when-impacted-by-high-energy-electrons"},"modified":"2024-06-27T02:27:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T07:27:14","slug":"new-calculation-approach-allows-more-accurate-predictions-of-how-atoms-ionize-when-impacted-by-high-energy-electrons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/new-calculation-approach-allows-more-accurate-predictions-of-how-atoms-ionize-when-impacted-by-high-energy-electrons","title":{"rendered":"New calculation approach allows more accurate predictions of how atoms ionize when impacted by high-energy electrons"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

During electron-impact ionization (EII), high-energy electrons collide with atoms, knocking away one or more of their outer electrons. To calculate the probability that ionization will occur during these impacts, researchers use a quantity named the \u201cionization cross-section.\u201d EII is among the main processes affecting the balance of charges in hot plasma, but so far, its cross-section has proven incredibly difficult to study through theoretical calculations.<\/p>\n

Through new research published<\/a> in The European Physical Journal D<\/i>, Stefan Schippers and colleagues at Justus-Liebig University of Giessen, Germany, present new calculations for the EII cross-section, which closely match with their experimental results. Their discoveries could provide useful new insights in many fields of research where hot plasma<\/a> is studied, including astrophysics and controlled nuclear fusion.<\/p>\n

So far, EII cross-sections have proven especially challenging to calculate for two key reasons: the complex interactions<\/a> that can emerge between the electrons involved in the process, and the wide array of possible electron configurations in the atoms being impacted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During electron-impact ionization (EII), high-energy electrons collide with atoms, knocking away one or more of their outer electrons. To calculate the probability that ionization will occur during these impacts, researchers use a quantity named the \u201cionization cross-section.\u201d EII is among the main processes affecting the balance of charges in hot plasma, but so far, its [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nuclear-energy","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}