Charge asymmetry effects in inner-shell alignment induced by ion-atom collisions

Charge asymmetry effects in an alignment of inner-shell vacancies induced by ion-atom collisions are studied theoretically. The corrections to the first order calculations of the alignment which depend on the sign of the projectile charge are discussed. The effect of these corrections on the differential alignment is large and can be studied in coincidence experiments with proton and antiproton beams of low energies. The calculations show that with increasing projectile energy the charge asymmetry effects decrease and become practically negligible when the projectile velocity is comparable with the velocity of the electron in the shell under consideration. The total alignment depends only weakly on the charge of the projectile. The calculated differences of the integralA g (2p ₃ ^2/?1 ) alignment produced by protons and antiprotons are not greater than 20% in the whole energy range under study.