ELECTRON-CAPTURE FROM CIRCULAR RYDBERG ATOMS

Electron capture cross sections from circular Rydberg states as a function of the angle cphi between the ion velocity and the angular momentum of the circular orbital have been reported recently by Hansen et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1522 (1993)]. We show that the observed cphi dependence can be explained in terms of the propensity rule that governs the dependence of electron capture cross sections on the magnetic quantum numbers of the initial excited states. We also carried out close-coupling calculations to show that electron capture from the circular H(3d,4f,5g) states by protons at the same scaled velocity has nearly the same cphi dependence. © 1995 The American Physical Society.