Non-reactive scattering of excited exotic hydrogen atoms

Abstract

The Coulomb deexcitation of light exotic atoms in collisions with hydrogen atoms has been studied in the framework of the fully quantum-mechanical close-coupling method for the first time. The calculations of the $l$-averaged cross sections have been performed for $(\mu p)_n$ and $(\mu d)_n$ atoms in the states with the principal quantum number $n=3 \div 8$ and relative energies region $E=0.01 \div 100$ eV. The obtained results reveal the new $n$ and $E$ dependences of the Coulomb deexcitation cross sections. The large fraction (up to $\sim$ 36%) of the transition with $\Delta n > 1$ is also predicted.