Nuclear excitation via inelastic scattering of low-energy vortex electrons

Abstract

Vortex particles carrying orbital angular momenta (OAMs) have found important applications in broad fields. However, the experimental verification of OAM transfer at the nuclear scale remains a great challenge. Here, we put forward a novel method to probe such OAM transfer through nuclear excitation via inelastic scattering of low-energy vortex electrons. We develop a Dirac distorted-wave Born approximation framework that incorporates the incident-electron OAM and a nonperturbative treatment of the Coulomb field, and apply it to $^{229}\mathrm{Th}$. We find that the vortex and non-vortex electrons yield opposite angular distributions, attributed to the OAM-modified selection rule and the Coulomb-induced redistribution of partial-wave strengths, providing an angle-resolved signature. Moreover, the vortex electron exhibits topological protection in the nuclear Coulomb field. Our method offers a route to probing nuclear-scale OAM transfer and deepens our understanding of the topological properties of vortex particles.