2007/10/09 by Agapi Emmanouilidou, Peijie Wang, Jan M. Rost +1
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Atomic physics #Breakup #Double ionization #Electron #Excited state #Fragmentation (computing) #Ground state #Ion #Ionization #Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications #Photoionization #Physics #Quantum mechanics #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.063002
arxiv created 2007/10/09 · openalex publication_date 2008/02/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
It is shown that the geometry of multielectron threshold ionization in atoms depends on the initial configuration of bound electrons. The reason for this behavior is found in the stability properties of the classical fixed point of the equations of motion for multiple threshold fragmentation. Specifically for three-electron breakup, apart from the symmetric triangular configuration also a breakup of lower symmetry in the form of a T shape can occur, as we demonstrate by calculating triple photoionization for the lithium ground and first excited states. We predict the electron breakup geometry for threshold fragmentation experiments.