Definition of Cross Sections for the Creation, Destruction, and Transfer of Atomic Multipole Moments by Electron Scattering: Quantum Mechanical Treatment

The rates for the creation, destruction, and transfer of atomic multipole moments by heavy-particle scattering have been studied for many years by Omont [1], by D'yakonov and Perel [2], and by Petrashen, Rebane, and Rebane [3–12] using semiclassical scattering theory along with the straight-line trajectory assumption for the scattering particle. This method has been adopted for electron scattering by Fujimoto et al. [13] and Fujimoto and Kazantsev [14]. These latter authors have given definitions of alignment creation, destruction, and transfer cross sections for both elastic and inelastic electron scattering within the semiclassical straigth-line trajectory approximation. The same practice was followed in the preceding Chap. 4. In the case of inelastic scattering, Kazantsev et al. [15, 16] gave a quantum-mechanical definition of the alignment-creation cross section, which was extended recently for elastic scattering by Csanak et al. [17]. The purpose of this chapter is to use the methods of Csanak et al. [17] to give general definitions for both elastic and inelastic scattering for the creation, destruction, and transfer cross sections of atomic multipole moments via the use of pure quantum-mechanical methods.