Electron capture in high-energy ion-atom collisions

We discuss the non-relativistic theory of electron capture from atoms (or ions) by ions when the relative velocity of the collision is greater than the orbital velocity of the captured electron. We emphasize the specific difficulties due to the two-body Coulomb potentials occurring in this process We show how the simplifications introduced by the small value of the electron to proton mass ratio can be used to provide a valuable tool to evaluate the adequacy of the existing theories. Extensive comparisons between theory and experiment are carried out and a number of new theoretical results are presented.