GENERALIZED STOKES PARAMETER APPROACH FOR ANALYSIS OF PERFECT SCATTERING EXPERIMENTS ON IMPACT EXCITATION BY SPIN-POLARIZED PARTICLES

We define 'generalized Stokes parameters' for scattered-projectile-polarized-photon coincidence experiments after impact excitation of unpolarized heavy atoms by spin polarized projectiles. Using electron-impact excitation of the (6s2)1S0e --> (6s6p)3P1o transition in Hg as the primary example, we demonstrate how a 'perfect scattering experiment' without analysis of the projectile spin after tbe collision can provide the eleven independent parameters that determine the six independent scattering amplitudes.