Coulomb deexcitation of pionic hydrogen within close-coupling method

Abstract

The Coulomb deexcitation of $(\pi p)$ atom in collisions with the hydrogen atom has been studied in the fully quantum mechanical close-coupling approach for the first time. The total Coulomb deexcitation cross-sections of $nl\to n'l'$ transitions and $l$-averaged cross-sections are calculated for $n=3 - 8$ and at the relative energies $E=0.01 - 100$ eV. The strong interaction and vacuum polarization shifts of $ns$-states are taken into account. It is shown that the $\Delta n > 1$ transitions are very important and make up a substantial fraction of the Coulomb deexcitation cross-section (up to $\sim 47%$).