PARTIAL AND TOTAL WIDTHS OF THE RESONANCES OF THE H-1S 2-ELECTRON IONIZATION LADDER

We have obtained the partial and total widths for autoionization of the H- 1S two-electron ionization ladder for n=37, which leads to the Wannier state at E=0. The theory starts from first principles by identifying and computing the appropriate localized, correlated wave functions on the real energy axis and then incorporating the effects of the multichannel continuum by solving state-specific, complex-eigenvalue non-Hermitian matrix equations. The outgoing channel-dependent Gamow orbitals are expanded in terms of Slater-type orbitals with coordinate complex scaling. The partial widths are obtained from an equation involving the complex mixing coefficients of the resonance wave function and the corresponding off-diagonal matrix element for each open channel. We find that by far the largest partial width is that which comes from the nearest threshold while within this hydrogenic threshold there is strong mixing of the angular momentum channels and a decay rate distribution which depends on the excitation energy. © 1990 The American Physical Society.